Poe 
XI. Obfervations on a remarkable Meteor feen on the 18th of 
Auguft, 1783, communicated in a Letter to Sir Jofeph Banks, 
Bart. P.R.S. By William Cooper, D. D. F.R.S. Arch. 
deacon of York. 3 
Read Jan. 15, 1784. 
DEAR SIR Hartlepool, near Stocktony . 
Z Aug, 19, 1783. 
O perfon could have a better opportunity of difcerning 
this awful meteor than myfelf. The weather being, for- 
this climate, aftonifhingly hot, my Faurenuert’s thermome- 
ter, on a north pofition, and in the open air, baving for feve- 
ral days preceding graduated between the hours of ten-o’clock 
in the morning and feven o’clock in the evening from 74° to 
82°, I fet. out upon a journey to.the fea-fide. The weather 
was fultry, the atmofphere hazy, and not a breath of air 
ftirring. ‘Towards nine o’clock at night it was fo dark, that I 
could ‘{carcely difcern the hedges, road, or even the horfes 
heads. As. we proceeded; I obferved-to my attendants, that 
there was fomething fingularly ftriking in the appearance of the. 
night, not merely from its ftillnefs and darknefs, but from the 
fulphureous vapours which feemed to furround us on every fide... 
In the midit of this gloom, and on an inftant, a brilliant tre- 
mulous light appeared to the N. W. by N. At the firft it 
feemed ftationary ; but in a {mall fpace of time it burft from its 
pofition, and took its courfe to the 8, E, by E. It pafled di-. 
recily.. 
