Observed Heights of Meteors or Shooting Stars. 217 



hundred and fifty feet wide, and two hundred and ten feet 

 high. 



The laying out of the works was commenced on the 9th 

 of March, 1861. About two weeks were occupied in making the 

 measurements, and the building was begun at the commence- 

 ment of April. It covers about twenty-four acres and a half 

 or sixty millions of cubic feet ; and, though smaller than the 

 building raised for the Paris Exhibition of 1855, it is larger 

 than the Hyde Park Crystal Palace of 1851. The latter struc- 

 ture, however, covered nearly twenty acres ; was begun about 

 the middle of August, 1850, and was finished by the day ap- 

 pointed, February 12th, 1851 ; whereas the present building 

 has taken a year to raise, and was not completed until six week? 

 after the contract date. The original contract for the building 

 in 1851 fixed eighty thousand pounds as the cost ; but this sum 

 was increased by the Commissioners to one hundred and eight 

 thousand pounds, and the sale of the materials to the Crystal 

 Palace Company of Sydenham placed seventy thousand pounds 

 more in the hands of the contractors — raising the sum they re- 

 ceived to one hundred and seventy-eight thousand pounds. 

 The old building had many imperfections, and was not, in many 

 respects, well adapted to preserve costly goods from sun, dust, 

 and rain ; but still it was valued for itself alone, and was 

 not the least interesting part of the show. The new building, 

 however, large as it is, will add nothing to the forthcoming 

 display except heaviness and bad proportions, and the wisest 

 visitors will devote themselves to the industrial collections, 

 and endeavour to forget the roof they are under. 



OBSERVED HEIGHTS OF METEORS AND SHOOTING 



STARS. 



BY ALEXANDER S. HERSCHEL. 



On the night of Tuesday, July 16, 1861, three meteors at least 

 attracted the attention of travellers in different parts of England. 

 That of lOh. 15m. p.m., first described by the Duke of Argyle in 

 the Times newspaper, was soon found to be irreconcileable with 

 that of llh. 32m., p.m., which took a southward course, and the 

 discussion elicited an account of a third, which was seen at Bris- 

 tol to move from north-west down to the west at half-past nine 

 of the same evening. The accounts collected of the two former 

 meteors showed that of 10.15 p.m. to have moved from 305 miles 

 over Liege in Belgium to 35 miles over the North Sea, 70 miles 

 east of the town of Morpeth, in Northumberland. This we 

 gather from accounts at London, where it disappeared due 



