Proceedings. XxIx 
that at the sea-level. And yet this little grain is glowing with 
an intensity which makes it visible more than a hundred miles 
away. This is simply from the intense friction against the 
infinitesimal amount of air. It is accounted for by its prodigious 
velocity, which would take it from over Edinburgh to over 
London in a quarter of a minute. There is no time for the air 
to get out of the way, Air is heated by compression, as we all 
now know from our bicycle pumps. In front of our meteor it 
reaches an ultra-white heat, which almost instantly consumes 
the solid particles. 
A shooting star, consequently, can never reach the ground. 
But from time to time far larger bodies appear, rivalling the 
brilliance of the moon or electric lights. These penetrate far 
further, and occasionally very large ones actually fall. Assuming 
them to be, as it were, boulders of the same nature as the sand 
grains which vanish overhead, we learn from them that meteoric 
matter often consists of nearly pure nickel-iron, but more often 
of a stony substance, usually rich in grains of iron, and most 
like some igneous rocks. No new elements have been found in 
them, but some of their mineral combinations are otherwise 
unknown on the earth. 
If the paths of the meteors seen on a given night are noted, 
it will be found that most of them point backwards to the same 
position among the stars. This place is accordingly called their 
radiant. This was noted in 1833; but observations of Mr. G. 
J. Symons in 1860 first brought attention to its significance.” 
Thus, on April 20th meteors radiate from a point near Vega, in 
the constellation Lyra. They are therefore called the Lyrids. 
In early August a few go out from the Square of Pegasus, but 
more, especially on the 9th and 10th, from Perseus. Thus we 
get the Pegasids and Perseids. The latter may be counted at the 
rate of thirty to fifty in the hour, instead of the usual average 
of four or five. We therefore speak of a ‘‘shower” of Perseid 
meteors. This name is more appropriate to the Andromeda 
shower, a display first seen on November 27th, 1872, again 
in 1885, and possibly recurring in the early evening of 
November 27th of this year. 
_ But the mid-November shower, the meteors of which, 
radiating from the sickle of Leo, give the name in our title, 
pre-eminently form a meteor shower. In August it is surprising 
if one is seen every minute, and yet they are under one common 
bond, each and all pursuing the same orbit with such unerring 
exactitude that it cuts our own every August without fail. 
Nevertheless the members of the group are as far from each 
other, as a rule, as London and New York. Their speed, com- 
pared to our earth, is forty miles per second. Even if one were 
seen each minute nearly in line with its predecessor, it would 
