Kirkwood.] ±1^ [April 15, 



Out of the myriads of Leonids, of Perseids, or of Andromedes, not one 

 particle has ever been seized and identified. Those bodies which do fall 

 from the sky to the earth, and which we call meteorites, never come from 

 the great showers, so far as we know. They seem indeed to be phenomena 

 of quite a diiierent character to the periodic meteors" (Story of the 

 Heavens, p. 349). 



In pointing out the coincidence in the epochs of shooting stars and me- 

 teoric stones,* the present writer neglected to assign an obvious reason for 

 the fact that star showers are so seldom observed at the same time with 

 the fall of aerolites : a majority of the latter have been seen in the day 

 time, when ordinary shooting stars would be invisible. At night, how- 

 ever, the phenomena have more than once occurred at exactly the same 

 time. The writer called special attention to one of these epochs as long 

 since as 1881. f In describing the shower of April meteors as it occurred 

 in the year 1094, the historian says: "At this period so many stars fell 

 from heaven that they could not be counted. In France the inhabitants 

 were amazed to see one of them of great size, fall to the earth, and they 

 poured water on the spot, when to their exceeding astonishment, smoke 

 issued from the ground with a hissing noise. "| A few other examples are 

 given below : 



(1.) During the meteoric display which continued through three consec- 

 utive nights in the latter part of October, A. D. 585, a globe of fire, spark- 

 ling, and producing a great noise, fell upon the earth. ^ 



(2.) A simultaneous fall of aerolites and shooting stars is indicated by 

 the phenomena of 1029, as described in the catalogues of Herrick and 

 Quetelet. 



(3.) But without quoting other records which imply the existence of 

 aerolites and ordinary meteoric matter in the same streams or clusters, it 

 is sufficient to refer to the recent and very decisive phenomena of Novem- 

 ber 27, 1885. II During the periodic star shower from the fragments of 

 Biela's comet a mass of meteoric iron weighing about ten pounds was 

 seen to fall near Mazapil, Mexico, in lat. 24° 35' K, long. 101° 56' 45" W. 

 from Greenwich. The evidence afforded by the phenomena of 1094 and 

 1885, apart from the other cases cited, renders the coexistence of large and 

 small masses in the same meteo^ streams almost infinitely probable. 



*Metr. Astr., pp. 58-64. 



t Science, Feb. 5, 1881, p. 59. 



:[ Am. Jouru. of Sci., Jan., l&tl, p. 356. 



g Quetelet's Physique du Globe, p. 291. 



II Am. Journ. Sci., March, 1887, p. 221. 



