EXPECTED METEORIC DISPLAY. 247 



ern lakes, and how a knowledge of them had then been gained we do 

 not know. It seems certain that no one in ancient times had ascended 

 the river to them. Expeditions were repeatedly sent out with this 

 object, notably one by Nero, which ascended higher than any other, 

 but was finally stopped by impenetrable marshes, apparently in about 

 9° north latitude. But in ancient as in modern times the problem was 

 finally approached in a different way. Marin of Tyre had furnished 

 Ptolemy with information in regard to the east coast of Africa. Trad- 

 ers had gone as far south as the promontory of Prasum (Cape Delgado), 

 and doubtless information gained there in regard to Madagascar had 

 given rise to the conjecture of lands inclosing the Indian Ocean. But 

 in trading along the coast these men had heard of two lakes in the 

 interior, which were called the sources of the Nile. Ptolemy would 

 seem to have made particular inquiries about these lakes, for he says 

 that a Greek trader had told him that they were farther inland than 

 he had supposed. He accordingly placed them, as seen in our map, in 

 latitudes 6° and 7° south, and longitudes 57° and 65° east, or on either 

 side of the meridian of Alexandria. Information like this was worthy 

 of the greatest geographer of antiquity, and which should not so long 

 have been despised ; for it was only when modern explorers, following 

 ancient traditions, went in from the coast of Zanzibar, that they — not 

 solved but re-solved the ancient problem of the sources of the Nile. 



EXPECTED METEOPJC DISPLAY. 



By EICHARD A. PKOCTOE. 



IT is expected, by nearly all astronomers who have given attention to 

 the subject, that there will be a display of falling stars on or about 

 November 27th next, though the night of the shower may perhaps fall 

 earlier or later, within a week or so either way. The display, should 

 it occur, will possess far more interest than any ordinary shower of 

 shooting stars, or even than the displays which have been witnessed on 

 the night of November 13th-14th, in 1799, 1833, 1866, and other years. 

 For, though we now know that when these showers of Leonides (as the 

 meteors of November 14th-15th are called) occur, the earth is passing 

 through the track of a comet which is followed by uncounted millions of 

 meteors, and the like when on the nights of August 10th, 11th, and 12th 

 the meteors called Perseids are seen, yet the comets corresponding to 

 these longer-known meteoric showers are less interesting to astronomers 

 than the comet along whose track those bodies travel which produced 

 the shower of falling stars seen on the night of November 27, 1872, 

 and which are expected to produce a similar display this year. It was 

 well remarked by M. O. Struve, at the last meeting of the German As- 



