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Meteor at Mahalaapie - between Koohee and Lake Ngami South West Africa signed (?)'....es' (lower right, obscured by mount), signed, titled and dedicated 'meteor at Mahalaapie - between Koohee/and Lake Ngami South West Africa -/to Mr and Mrs W Morgan/Perry Hill - the....tin/Birmingham/with kind remembrance from their friend/T Baines' on the reverse watercolour heightened with bodycolour arched top 6 1/4 x 10 3/8in. (15.8 x 26.3cm.) Probably the meteor sighted on the night of 20 November 1861 en route to Victoria Falls: 'At night I observed Achernar, but having been occupied with other work, had not guessed the time sufficiently near to catch the star before passing the meridian. While thus engaged I saw a meteor shoot from the low mist on the southern horizon, and, slightly arching in its flight, rise towards the zenith, its head glowing with an intense liquid heat, as if of molten iron, in two or three successive drops, and leaving a train of sparks behind it, gradually fading from a white heat to yellow and dull red. It seemed as bright as a signal-rocket discharged at half a mile distance, and certainly much brighter than the planet that had just set.' (T. Baines, Exploration in South-West Africa, London, 1864, p.233.) For Baines' meteor pictures, see B. Warner, 'Thomas Baines and Astronomy' in the exhibition catalogue Thomas Baines: An Artist in the Service of Science in Southern Africa, London, 1999, pp.131-35.)