high, and broad at the base, resembling a stumpy sheaf with jagged masses of spray spreading out at the sides, and seemed to grow outwards till I almost feared that it was coming to us.  It sunk, I suppose, in separate parts, for it did not make any grand squash down, and then there were seen logs of wood rising, and a dense mass of black mud, which spread gradually round till it occupied a very large space.  Fish were stunned by it:  our boatmen picked up some.  It was said by all present that this was the best explosion which had been seen:  it was truly wonderful.  Then we sailed to Portsmouth.......The explosion was a thing worth going many miles to see.  There were many yachts and sailing boats out to see it (I counted 26 before they were at the fullest), so that the scene was very gay.

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Here are some notes on York Cathedral after the fire: 

RED LION HOTEL, REDCAR,
1840, Sept. 7.

My first letter was closed after service at York Cathedral.  As soon as I had posted it, I walked sedately twice round the cathedral, and then I found the sexton at the door, who commiserating me of my former vain applications, and having the hope of lucre before his eyes, let me in.  I saw the burnt part, which looks not melancholy but unfinished.  Every bit of wood is carried away clean, with scarcely a smoke-daub to mark where it has been:  the building looks as if the walls were just prepared for a roof, but there are some deep dints in the pavement, shewing where large masses have fallen.  The lower parts of some of the columns (to the height of 8 or 10 feet) are much scaled and cracked.  The windows are scarcely touched.  I also refreshed my memory of the chapter-house, which is most beautiful, and which has much of its old gilding reasonably bright, and some of its old paint quite conspicuous.  And I looked again at the old crypt with its late Norman work, and at the still older crypt of the pre-existing church.

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1841

“The routine work of the Observatory in its several departments was carried on steadily during this year.—­The Camera Obscura was removed from the N.W.  Turret of the Great Room, to make way for the Anemometer.—­In Magnetism and Meteorology the most important thing was the great magnetic storm of Sept. 29th, which revealed a new class of magnetic phenomena.  It was very well observed by Mr Glaisher, and I immediately printed and circulated an account of it.—­In April I reported that the Planetary Reductions were completed, and furnished estimates for the printing.—­In August I applied for 18,000 copies of the great skeleton form for computing Lunar Tabular Places, which were granted.—­I reported, as usual, on various Papers for the Royal Society, and was still engaged on the Cavendish Experiment.—­In the University of London I attended the meeting of Dec. 8th, on the reduction of Examiners’ salaries, which were