J867.] Proceedings of the Asiatic Society. 19 



" The meteors did not actually start into view at one point ; many 

 commenced their courses about 30° or 40° from the supposed point 

 of divergence, seeking the different points of the horizon, while the 

 upper portions of their trains pointed to the same spot in the sky. 

 These were generally large and bright, and illumined the trees and 

 walls like a flash of lightning from a thunder cloud near the horizon ; 

 others, comparatively small, darted or first shewed themselves only 

 a few degrees from the radiating centre, sometimes three at once, 

 leaving their trains for leisurely tracing backwards ; those with long 

 trains and long courses, generally burst or blazed out about 20° or 30° 

 from the horizon ; some within 20° of it. No sound of any kind was 

 heard : the light of these meteors, when they blazed out, was reddish : 

 the trains left behind were generally broad, spreading about half a 

 degree, glowing at first like the fresh mark of phosphorus on a wall, 

 then quickly becoming pale like the tail of a comet, or like the 

 mingling of muriatic acid gas and ammonia, and lasting from half a 

 minute to one minute and a half. 



" One took me quite by surprise ; it blazed out like a star of the 

 2nd or 3rd magnitude between /x and e of Leo major, as bright as e 

 but not of the some silveryness or intensity, and gradually faded 

 away in the same spot, without any visible linear course whatever : 

 it suggested the idea of a meteor coming straight to the eye. 



" I looked out again at 6 a. m. before the sun rose, and saw a streak 

 of white 'light, like a Rupert's drop with a long thread behind, shoot 

 down from the direction of Leo major, to Gapella Alajoth in the north 

 west, the only star then visible. It appeared to be close at hand, 

 and looked exactly like those of 1833, with the exception of the long 

 thread. About three or four of the meteors enumerated above did 

 not shoot from the diverging point : if they belonged to the same 

 set, they must have be^n drawn out of their course. 



" After as careful a survey as the circumstances would permit, I have 

 no doubt that the centre of radiation was somewhere between the two 

 stars in the head of Leo major, viz. e and /x ; and probably at the 

 precise spot where a meteor appeared and disappeared. I saw one 

 meteor start a few degrees north of /x, (scarcely 3°,) to a point between 

 north and north-east, and its course, traced backwards, passed straight 

 over fx and e ; and the clear impression of the moment on my mind 



