Observed Heights of Meteors and Shooting Stars. 221 



It was observed at Greenwich to commence over a Andro- 

 medge. The parallax of 7°, obtained from the records, give a 

 height of 47 miles over the English Channel, 20 miles east of 

 the North Foreland. The meteor was conformable to /3 Camelo- 

 pardalis, and we may infer for it a course of 35 to 40 miles, per- 

 formed in little more than one second of time, at an inclination 

 of 38° to the horizon towards 42° W. of S. 



Five minutes later than this a second magnitude meteor, 

 with a tail, was observed by Mr. Nash to fall from y Ursse 

 Majoris towards the horizon, while at Cambridge two meteors 

 with centres coincident succeeded each other almost imme- 

 diately — one of third magnitude, the second of first magnitude, 

 leaving a tail. The second was seen, by the Eev. James Challis, 

 to shoot to the left at 45° to the horizon, at altitude 20°, 13° 

 S. of W. A line of sight at Greenwich, half-way between 

 y UrsEe and the horizon, intersects this Cambridge line of sight 

 accurately at 17 miles over Buckingham, and assuming it to 

 have been slightly inclined to the left at Greenwich, we infer it 

 to have flown some 20 miles at 40° to the horizontal from 

 N. to S., from a height of 24 miles to perhaps only seven 

 above the earth. This is the lowest meteor which the obser- 

 vations render in any degree probable. 



About a quarter of an hour after this two small meteors 

 appeared, to Messrs. W. C. Nash and J. Howe, to succeed each 

 other rapidly from « Cygni — one to a. Lyree, the other towards 

 Delphinus. Within 10 seconds of the time of the first, a 

 meteor is recorded at Cambridge, by the Rev. James Challis, 

 of third magnitude, altitude 46°, 26° W. of S., moving 

 downwards to the right at 30° to the horizontal. A line of 

 sight, directed from Greenwich to * Lyras 3-5ths of the way 

 from a. Cygni to a Lyras, intersects a line of sight from Cam- 

 bridge, altitude 48°, 21° W. of South, accurately at 70 miles 

 over Leatherhead. From this point the meteor was directed 

 to the town of Andover, at 54° to the horizontal, towards 20° 

 S. of W., in a course perpendicular to the town of Cam- 

 bridge, where, at a distance of 94 miles, every 5 miles of flight 

 would subtend 3° of arc. This meteor closes the list among 

 the accordances of the 10th of August. It was probably from 

 20 to 25 miles in length. At 300 yards' distance it would 

 have shed the light of the full moon, and it burned with the 

 brilliance of 400 ordinary gas-lights. 



On August the 11th fewer accordances were obtained. Sixty 

 observations at Hawkhurst, and nearly half as many at the 

 contiguous station of Flimwell, are so strangely discordant 

 that the wonder is how so many meteors should have been in- 

 serted so entirely disagreeing in time and place : the only one 

 accordance is too vague to yield a useful parallax. This was 



