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Ordinary Meeting, December 29th, 1863. 
E. W. Binney, F.R.S., F.G.S., President, in the Chair. 
Mr. Sidebotham exhibited two photographs which he had 
taken from a book in the possession of Mr. Buxton, of 
Daresbury, entitled “Histoire de la Navigation aux Indes 
Orientales, par les Hollandois,” Amsterdam, 1609, One of 
these represents the title page, which is interesting as 
showing, in the map of Africa which it contains, the course of 
the Nile and the two lakes from which it springs, one of 
them having two outlets. The other photograph shows, 
among figures of other productions of the Mauritius, that of 
the Dodo. It would appear that this is the earliest figure of 
this now extinct bird. 
T. T. Wilkinson, F.R.A.S., &c., communicated the 
following note on the late meteor. 
On December 5th, 1863, at about 7h. 55m. p.m., I observed 
a very brilliant meteor at Haslingden. It passed from the 
noi th towards the west, and was first visible to me when 
near to 7 Ursce Majoris. The nucleus was of an egg-like 
form, the head being intensely bright and considerably 
broader than the rest. The atmosphere was quite clear at 
the time, and hence I had a good view of its whole passage. 
Its color was pale blue, and the light it emitted was so 
intense that the public gas lamps were immediately put into 
shade and suddenly threw their shadows across the road. 
The tail of the meteor gradually tapered to a point, and 
appeared to give out sparks of a purplish tint. When 
about 4° beneath a Lyrce, the meteor exploded, and 
then the sparks were so variegated in color — the red and 
purple tints prevailing — that they gave me the idea of a 
rocket, and I for a moment thought that the Haslingden 
people were doing this in honor of the Marquis of Harting- 
ton’s visit to their town. This illusion was, however, 
immediately dispelled. The whole time of passage did not 
Proceedings— Lit. & Phil. Society— No. 9.— Session, 1863-64. 
