214 C0 3MOS. 



Ler, 1846, upjii the average, 27 to 33.) So variable i?. lh€ 

 abundance of the periodic streams in individual years ; bu^ 

 the number of the falling meteors always remains consider' 

 ably greater than in ordinary nights, which show in one hour 

 only lour or five sporadic falls. The m.5teors appear to be 

 the most seldom in January (calculating from the 4th), Feb- 

 ruary, and March,^ 



''Although the August and Nov einhcr periods are justly 

 the most celebrated, still, since the shooting stars have been 

 observed with greater accuracy, as to their number and par- 

 allel direction, yet five others have been discovered. 



Januarij : during the first days between the 1st and 3d ; 

 probably some^^hat doubtful. 



Ajjril : 18th or 20th? already conjectured by Arago. 

 {Great streams: 25th of April, 1095, 22d of April 1800, 

 20th of April, 1803 ; Cosmos, vol. i., p. 125-126. Aji 

 nuaireiox 1836, p. 297.) 

 May: 26th? 



July: 26th to the 30th; Gluetelet. Maximum prop- 

 erly between the 27th and 29th of July. The most an- 

 cient Chinese observations gave Edward Biot (unfortunate- 

 ly too soon taken away) a general maximum between the 

 18th and 27th of July. 



August, but before the Laurentius stream, especially be- 

 tween the 2d and 5th of the month. For the most part, 

 no regular increase is remarked from the 20th of July to 

 the 10th of August. 



The Laurentius stream itself, M usschenbrock 



and Brandos [Cosmos, vol. i., p. 124, and note ;). Decided 

 maximum on the 10th of August ; observed for many years. 

 (According to an old tradition, which is diffused among 

 the mountain regions about Pelion in Thessaly, on the feast 

 of the Transfiguration, the 6th of March, the heavens open 

 during the night, and the lights [navdjjXia] appear in the 

 midst of the opening; Herrick, in Silliman's Amer. Jour- 

 nal, vol. xxxvii., 1 839, p. 337 ; and Gluetelet, in the Nouv. 

 Mem. de VAcad. de Brwxelles, tom. xv., p. 9.) 



October : the 19th and the days about the 26th ; due 

 telet ; Boguslawski, in the '' Arbeiten der schles. GeselU 

 sciiaflfur vaterl Cultur," 1843, p. 178 ; and Heis, p. 83. 



* I have, however, myself ohserved a considerable fall of shooting 

 stars on the ">6th of March, 1803, in the South Sea (Lat. 13^ N.). 

 Also, G87 years oefore our era tv\ i iiieteor-st'-eams were seen in China 

 in the mtnith of i.vlaiCl [Cjamos, vol. i., p. 128). 



