Evening Meeting, Dec. 3rd, 1853. lxix, 



EVENING MEETING, HELD 3 ED DECEMBER, 1853. 



An Evening Meeting of this Society took place at Mr. 

 Justice Starke's house, on Saturday 3d December, 1853. 

 The following books, lately received, were laid on the Table, 

 Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, Vol. 15, part 1. 

 Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, No. 7 of 1852, and Nos. 1 

 and 2 of 1853. 



Bibliotheca Indica, from No. 45 to No. 49, both inclusive. 



Journal of the Indian Archipelago, No. 1 of vol. 7, from the Editor. 



Annals and Magazine of Natural History, Nos. 67, 68, 69 and 70. 



Typography, or Letter Press Printing in the 15th Century, by W. 

 Skeen, Esq., presented by the author. 

 Meteorological Observations, completing the series up to the 

 month of September, were received from D. Sanders, Esq., of 

 the Batticotta Missionary Institution, and from Commander 

 Higgs, Master Attendant of Trincomalie, also notices of the 

 Comet seen in August last. 



Trincomalie, 25th August, 1853. 

 We saw a Comet here on the evening of the 23rd instant, a little 

 after 7. It was low down in the w. n. w. quarter. Through a glass of 

 small power the nucleus and tail were unusually bright; a line from alpha 

 Cygni through zeta Ursa Majoris led to it. It was very clearly seen last 

 night, I merely caught a glimpse of it, and it bids fair to be overcast to- 

 night. So soon as I am able to get a few angles to fix it approximately, 

 I will send you the declination and right ascension. 



Yours, &c, 



J. Higgs. 



lAth September, 1853. 

 The weather was so cloudy that I was unable to fix the Comet. The 

 last night it was seen was on the 1 st September at 7 -20 p.m., when it had 

 the appearance of a circular mist. I saw it twice for a few seconds with 

 my glass (about 80 power) on the nights of the 27th and 30th August; the 

 nucleus was astonishingly bright, as large as Jupiter. The outside lines 

 of the tail also were extremely bright. To the naked eye the tail had the 

 appearance of two bright lines with a dark interval. It had a rapid motion 

 towards the sun; the angle between epsilon Ursa Majoris and the Comet 

 having increased between the 26th of August and 1st September, 19° 45" 



Yours, &c., 



Joseph Higgs. 



