from Proceedings of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, 1875

(page 156)

Read the following extract from the Report on the affairs of the settlement of Port Blair and the Nicobars for the month of May, 1874.

"On the 31st of the month, at about 5:30 p.m., an extraordinary phenomenon was observed. The sky at the time was quite clear and the weather fine. I was out sailing in my boat, when suddenly a luminous body darted from the heavens from north to south. When first observed, it was like an ordinary meteor with a long tail. In its progress, it seemed as it were to slide into two distinct meteors attached to each other by the tail of the first thus *-----*-----, and then, after a further rapid progress, it appeared to burst into eight parts, and disappeared from view.

"I have never witnessed so strange a spectacle before, and mention the occurrence here in the hope that it may have been observed in India, and that a more perfect account of it may be forthcoming from some scientific individual."

The President remarked that the phenomenon observed was very similar to a very bright meteor seen in the Panjab some time since; it was however, very remarkable that in the present instance no report had been heard. The meteor must have been extraordinarily bright to have been visible in the afternoon in the month of May.