222 Observed Heights of Meteors and Shooting Stars. 



dull red, and tailless during the last third part of its course, 

 in strong contrast to the previous two-thirds, where the nieteor 

 was brilliant blue, and emitted a lengthy enduring train. It 

 was not noticed at any other station, and was possibly of low 

 altitude like that surmised over Buckingham. 



Within five minutes from this time, however, a beautiful 

 white meteor shot 8° very slowly in the E. from Hawkhurst. 

 The tail was the most enduring of the evening (7 seconds). 

 Duration 1^ sees. ; shot to clock hour IVf, at altitude 16°, 33° 

 N. of E. ; a careful observation. 



At Ipswich the same meteor was seen to terminate at 

 y Pegasi, inclined 40° to the horizontal. We infer from this a 

 path of 36 miles, from 44 to 21 miles above the English 

 Channel, 70 miles E. of Ipswich, at an inclination of 42° to 

 the horizon towards 20° W. of S. 



Seven minutes later a second bright meteor was at Ips- 

 wich observed to pass down the centre of the Milky Way, 

 which was vertical at Hawkhurst. It was of first magnitude 

 and left a tail, and appears to have been 64 miles over Hail- 

 sham, in Sussex, performing 25 miles in half a second, almost 

 horizontally towards 12° W. of S. 



A map of these accordances is annexed for illustration, and 

 it is particularly desirable to make these observations on the 

 nights when meteors are most abundant, as we may hope to 

 trace on quiet nights an outline to the regions where these 

 fugitive particles become incandescent more surely than on 

 separate nights, and in separate conditions of the atmosphere. 

 On the 28th of January, 1862, a shooting star was very 

 accurately observed, between London and Aylesbury, to 

 traverse a horizontal distance of 60 miles, with a uniform speed 

 of 40 miles a second, horizontally from 44 miles over Melton 

 Mowbray, in Leicestershire, to 47 miles over Macclesfield, in 

 Derbyshire. It shone throughout as a first magnitude star, 

 without change of brightness; the course appears only 12° in 

 length at London, and. 20° in length at Aylesbury, and it is 

 difficult to account for these decided points of kindling and 

 extinction upon a horizontal course of a projectile, if we do not 

 admit a column, or wave, of the atmosphere to be here sin- 

 gularly uplifted ; and the rapid motion of the tail in the nieteor 

 of July 16th seems to point equally to violent commotions 

 upon the upper surface of the atmosphere. 



