Fireball Radiant in Sextans. 
641 
18S4.I 
Bristol ; it was likewise noticed at many other places, 
including Exeter, Torquay, and Callington in Cornwall.* 
The radiant point from a comparison of the observed flights 
is north of a Hydrae. Mr. W. H. Wood described it as 
“ near a Hydrae,” from his discussion of the observations. 
On February 2nd, 1876. 8 h. 31 m., I saw a small bolide, 
equal to Mars, threading its way slowly along a short arc 
amm the stars of Coma Berenices. Path from i 75 3 + 3 x ° t0 
185° + 35°. On February 4th, of the same year, at 7I1. 35 m., 
I recorded a slow-moving fireball emitting a light about 
4=5. It traversed a course of 24° between Taurus and 
Eridanus. This meteor considerably exceeded the small 
bolide of February 2nd as regards magnitude and visible 
effect, but otherwise their features nearly coincided, and the 
relative directions exhibit a radiant near the star a Leonis 
as their point of mutual intersection. 
On March 17th, 1877, 9 h. 54 m. a large fireball, estimated 
1=5, was observed at Bristol as it travelled slowly through 
Monoceros. The same meteor was seen and described from 
many other parts of the kingdom. Col. Tupman computed 
the orbit, and found the apparent radiant at about 145 0 — 4°.+ 
On January 27th, 1879, 14 h. 28 m., an immense fireball, 
with a diameter said to exceed 2 (4x5), and casting off a 
perfeCt ring of fiery sparks, was seen in America. It “ pro- 
duced a violent explosion like an earthquake’s shock, in 
Traverse City, Michigan,” and moved slowly from a radiant 
at about 142°+ 14°, according to the combined observations 
at Wisconsin and Michigan.! 
On February 21st, 1879, 12 h. 20 m., a vivid fireball, with 
a nucleus half the moon’s apparent diameter, was seen in 
Essex, Suffolk, and Cambridgeshire. It “ burst into frag- 
ments with a report like thunder, heard in less than half a 
minute at Haverhill and at Saffron Walden in Essex.” The 
radiant point was at i40° + 5° (±7°), near the head of Hydra. § 
It is to some extent questionable whether these fireballs 
were severally evolved from the same parent stream, but the 
faCt is a suggestive one that the relative directions are so 
closely conformable to one centre, that, allowing for the 
probable errors of observation affeCting the individual in- 
stances, a common derivative radiant may justly be attributed 
them. In any case it may be regarded as proved that here, 
in the special region included between the stars a Leonis and 
a Hydrae, there is a well-defined and singularly persistent 
radiant of fireballs, some of which are detonating and of 
* British Association Report on Luminous Meteors, 1871, p. 33. 
f Monthly Notices, toI. xxxvii., p. 353 ; and Observatory, vol. i., pp. 19, 2 o, 
+ Monthly Notices, vol. xl., p. 257, § Ibid. 
