A CATALOGUE OF OBSERVATIONS OF LUMINOUS METEORS. 1438 
and it had then the appearance of dislocated vertebree. At this time the 
light was deep yellow, inclined to red,—probably a reflection from the sun, 
not far below the horizon. Its edges at last lost their character, its light 
became pale, and very gradually it vanished altogether without the slightest 
noise of any kind, which was attentively listened for. From its first being 
noticed to its final disappearance, a period of about ten minutes elapsed. All 
the changes seemed to be produced slowly, and only in its sudden appearance 
had it at all the character of a gaseous explosion. 
“T remain, Sir, your obedient servant, 
‘ Blackheath, Jan. 7, 4°50 p.m.” “T. KIMBER.” 
No. 3.—A paper “On the Horary Variation of Meteors,” by G. C. 
Bompas, Esq., was communicated to the Royal Astronomical Society, and 
of which an abstract appears in their Notices for March 1857, p. 147. 
These researches relate to the law, and to the probable cause, of the horary 
variation in the number of meteors, established by the observations of 
Coulvier-Gravier, Saigey, and others. (Recherches sur les Etoiles Filantes, 
Paris, 1845, and Humboldt’s Cosmos, iii. 440.) 
From these various researches the following table gives a summary of the 
number of meteors at different hours of the night :— 
Hours p.m. ta 6to7|7to8|8to9 9 to 10|10+t011/11 tol2 
Mean No. of Meteors... 33 | 35 | 3:7 | Ai hesAdin ih 
Hours A.M. ....../12 to 1} lto2 | 2to3|3t04/|4to5|5to6 
Mean No. of Meteors...| 5°8 6°4 71 78 8 8-2 
It thus appears that from 6 p.m. through the night to 6 A.m., the number 
of meteors seer regularly increases, But it is assumed that this is a fair 
representation of the number actually occurring, or which would be seen, if 
daylight permitted, in those hours of which no mention is made in the obser- 
vations, a circumstance which may be open to question. 
Again, if we estimate the numbers observed as coming from different 
_ quarters of the heavens, designating the numbers which come from the 
_ several points of the compass by those initials respectively, then the average 
of the observations gives— 
E. greater than 2 W. 
N.=S. nearly, 
but E.-W.=N.+S. 
Coulvier-Gravier observes, “ But for the cause which transfers from the 
West to the East nearly one-half the number due to each of these directions, 
there would come exactly the same numbers of shooting stars from the four 
points of the compass.” 
He does not, however, appear to assign what that cause is. 
_ As to the heights of meteors, it appears that the greatest heights which 
have been ascertained bear but a very small proportion to the earth’s radius, 
_ The altitudes of the greatest number lie between 16 and 140 miles, though 
some reach 200 or 400 miles. (See Herschel’s Outlines, 904.) 
The velocities of meteors have been variously assigned as from 18 to 36 
miles per second ; but some have been 90 miles. (Herschel, ibid.) 
Boguslawski considers that 5 out of 6 have a velocity about double that 
