EECEEATITE SCIENCE. 



135 



a few of the more remarkable have, there- 

 fore, been selected, in order to illustrate this 

 paper. 



One point requires especial notice ; it is 

 this — if the paths of a number of meteors be 

 produced backwards, nearly all of them will 

 meet at a certain point in the heavens, and 

 this point, on the 10th of August of the present 

 year, was situated midway between a and P 

 Persei. Prom 11 p.m. till 3 a.m. on this 

 night, the number of meteors seen steadily 

 increased up to 3 a.m. ; watching a fourth 

 of the heavens gave 70 per hour, or 280 for 

 the whole sky. Those near the above-named 

 point had mostly very short paths, and the 

 further they were removed from this point 

 the longer were their paths. At Ih. 32m. it 

 was my good fortune to see a meteor ex- 

 actly on this point; it appeared as a mere 

 speck, increased to that of a star of the first 

 magnitude, and again decreased, and vanished, 

 without moving in the slightest degree. 



Two meteors seen at the Beeston Obser- 

 ^ atory deserve notice ; the one (Fig. 26) seen 



' 7/1 , vNc^ 



/ I i I t ■%. ^ 



Fig. 26. 



September 29th, 1857 (lOh. 14m. 30s. p.m.), 

 became very bright, and rapidly increased 

 in size ; the preceding edge was circular and 

 well defined ; but in every other direction it 

 terminated in long streaks of light, not un- 

 like streams of Aurora borealis. The other, 

 seen on September 30th, 1858 (7h. 51m. p.m.), 

 fell 1° W. along the taU of Donati's comet. 

 It appeared, disappeared, and reappeared a 

 score times, giving the impression of moving 

 each time behind an opaque body. 



The point from whi eh the meteors diverge 



appears to be situated in Cygnus in July, 

 whilst in August it is never far removed 

 from Cassiopeia, and in November it is in Xico. 

 The point of divergence seems to be the 

 result of perspective, and that really the 

 greater number of these bodies move in lines 

 parallel to each other ; for those in the S. and 

 S.E. generally move to S. and S.W., whilst 

 those to the W. and N.W. move towards 

 W. and W.S.W. It is a singular feature 

 that when two meteors foUow each other on 

 the same track, they invariably move at the 

 same speed, and generally are very difierent 

 in size. It might be supposed that the 

 smaller one was an attendant or satellite of 

 the larger one, and this very materially 

 strengthens the opinion of their being mate- 

 rial bodies. On the other hand, there are 

 large meteors which move in paths dis- 

 cordant to the direction of meteors generally, 

 and they alter both their shape and colour. 

 These maybe a perfectly distinct class, owing 

 their origin to electricity, as their prevalence 

 about the time of thunder-storms is a well- 

 known fact. 



Mr. Hind, who has observed a meteor 

 pass slowly across the field of a large tele- 

 scope, describes it as appearing better defined 

 than a star, which it in some degree resem- 

 bled ; but the time was too short to allow of 

 a planetary disc being seen. The fragments 

 appeared like phosphoric lights. 



M. Bompas has deduced the following 

 theory, founded on observations, regarding 

 the regular increase of the number of meteors 

 through the successive hours from 6 p.m. to 

 6 a.m. The number which appears in the 

 E. is above double that appearing in the 

 W., those in N. and S. being about equal ; 

 therefore nearly two-thirds of the meteors 

 originate in the eastern hemisphere. The 

 greatest number is encountered when the 

 olserver's meridian is in the direction of the 

 earth's motion, which is at 6 a.m., and then 

 decreases to 6 p.m., when he looks in the 

 opposite dii'ection. The earth moving with 



