Beam of November 17, 1882. 327 



ever, I detected a sort of broken and clouded structure, diffi- 

 cult to describe except as being something like what certain 

 forms of cumulo-cirri would appear if illuminated by Balmain 

 paint. Mr. Worthington (obs. 15) noticed it had the ends of 

 a rough splintered appearance. Mr. Batson (obs. 4) says that 

 the object when nearest presented throughout its length (but 

 rather below than above) a remarkable " boiling " appearance 

 (as seeds in a capsule), while the edges appeared smooth and 

 quiet. I did not myself observe this. One curious feature 

 (noticed particularly abroad) was a sort of nucleus, or rather 

 central dulness. 



Prof. Oudemans (obs. 24) remarks that when 90° length 

 was obtained the beam separated and a division (longitudinal 

 I presume) was formed 10° x J°; while in the Bruxelles ob- 

 servation we find u Quand elle eu deja disparu en partie der- 

 riere l'horizon, elle presenta un noyau plus obscur, comme 

 elle l'avait fait a l'horizon oriental." Mr. Munro (obs. 9) is 

 the only English observer who appears to have noticed this 

 feature; and he speaks of a " dark nucleus " about 3° transverse 

 diameter and 2° conjugate — his position, it maybe noted, like 

 the foreign ones, being to the east of Greenwich. Mr. 

 Munro further describes the beam as like the edge view of 

 a luminous quoit, its diameter being parallel to the horizon. 



This definition is well supported by the circumstances of the 

 nucleus being mostly observed where the beam, as in Belgium, 

 passed overhead, and by the wider breadth (4° to 5°) assigned 

 to it there, at the same time that most English observers saw 

 no nucleus, and estimated, on the whole, the breadth as deci- 

 dedly smaller. This would give a figure, as seen in the zenith, 

 of a ring much pulled out with a central opening (the nucleus 

 being described as a dark one or a division), while as viewed 

 at an angle the short diameter would be less and the central 

 nucleus lost. The form thus obtained (a pulled-out ring) is 

 what one might anticipate of an elastic gaseous or fluid-like 

 body flying at considerable speed through a resisting medium. 



Among the incidents mentioned exceptionally may be no- 

 ticed Mr. Saxby's (obs. 11) observation of a second beam 70° 

 northward, which appeared as the principal one approached 

 the W. horizon; and also some observations reminding one of 

 the dark- shadow or contrast tint seen near the end of the tail 

 of the recent Great comet. These are as follows : — (1) Mr. 

 Joseph Clark (obs. 10) observed a " dark something " before 

 the " bar " which seemed to indicate the path it would take, 

 and also a dark streak where it passed. (2) Major J. Her- 

 schel (' Nature,' p. 87), in quoting from a correspondent's 

 letter to him, says u it left a black cloud of its own shape, 



