about 7,000 or 8,000." "No person," writes Mr. J. R. Hind, of the Twicken- 

 ham Observatory, "who carefully watched the display of last night could 

 have any doubt as to the accuracy of the astronomical theory relative to 

 these bodies. The radiant in Leo was most strikingly manifested ; while the 

 meteors in the opposite quarter of the sky traversed arcs of many degrees, in 

 the vicinity of the diverging point they shone out for a few seconds without 

 appreciable motion, and might have been momentarily mistaken for stars by 

 any one to whom the configm-ation of the heavens in that direction was not 

 familiar." 



The "astronomical theory" referred to by Mr. Hind is so well given in 

 the following extract from the Times that I feel I cannot do hotter than copy 

 the language of that journal, and give the following passage without note or 

 comment :— " Once iu a generation, and thrice in a century— for in this matter 

 man and the material universe seem strangely in accord— this earth has to 

 encounter an immense cloud of stones revolving round the sun, in an orbit of 

 the same size as its own, but in a contrary dirjction. This cloud of stones is 

 believed to constitute a sort of ring, diffused over the whole orbit, like a great 

 highway of rolling or flying stones, though not in uniform density. However, 

 there is no escaping them, whatever they are, for the breadth of this highway 

 or stream is compared to the moon's orbit, and it takes two or three successive 

 years, or, we should say, successive Novembers, for the earth to enter and 

 clear it. These stones enter our atmosphere with a velocity of forty miles a 

 second, and destroy themselves, as it were, by their own violence, for, when 

 once arrested by our grosser air, they are instantly melted and dissipated 

 in the air." 



Professor Grant, of the Royal Observatory, Glasgow, says that the average 

 height of the meteors above the earth's surface has been found to be about 

 seventy miles. 



In conclusion, I am anxious to remind the members of the ^Voolhope Club 

 that their stock of meteorological instruments is not in a very satisfactory 

 condition. The barometer is, it is true, in first-rate order, and the same may 

 be said, I believe, of the electrometer and wind-guage (Lind's) ; but the 

 rain-guage should be tested, and the thermometers are all partially useless. 

 It is quite true that many of the members posstss good instruments ; but 

 these instruments, being private property, are liable at any moment to removal 

 at the will of the owners. It is right that a scientific society like the 

 Woolhope Club should, in a matter of this kind, be indeiiendent of individual 

 members, and possess instruments which might be made available in any 

 emergency, and render the breaking up of a series of observations by the 

 yemoval of a member a matter of impossibility. 



