On the Shooting Stars of Aug, 9th and 10th, 1837. 181 
ness, as we desired. The following is a brief account of our ob- 
servations.—On Wednesday, the ninth of August, we started from 
the town of Sion, (Canton of Vallais,) about eight in the evening, 
seated with the conducteur, at the rear of the Diligence, on the 
outside, On leaving the town, we found the sky entirely clear, 
and meteors falling in very unusual numbers, Our attention was 
much attracted by the display, and at five minutes before nine, 
(by my watch,) we began to count the meteors as they appeared, 
and continued counting until we had enumerated three hundred, 
when I found the time to be fifteen minutes before eleven, P. M. 
Here we ceased to count; but from this hour until our nerivel at 
Martigny, at five minutes before 2 A. M. of the next morning, 
(August 10,) the meteors were apparently no less abundant than 
while we were counting. Both of us commonly looked at one 
and the same quarter of the heavens, and I think that we did not 
in the whole, see a greater number of meteors than a single obser- 
ver, directing his attention to one and the same quarter of the sky, 
during that period, would have noted. The part of the heavens 
towards which we looked, was chiefly the N. N. E., taking in about 
30° on each side of that point, but occasionally we included some 
of uncommon splendor, falling in other quarters of the sky. We 
remarked that many more appeared on the eastern than on the wes- 
tern side of this point. About one third of the meteors exceeded. 
in apparent size, stars of the first magnitude, and most of the lar- 
ger sort left behind them trains of sparks. ‘The meteors were 
mostly of a brilliant white color; many however, were of a red- 
dish hue and some showed a slight tinge of green. 
“On our arrival at Martigny, we went to bed, and saw no more. 
The night of Thursday, 10th—11th August, when aceording to 
the report of M. Arago, unusual numbers of meteors were seen at 
Paris, we spent at the village of Chamonix, (Chamouni.) During 
the evening, the sky was much clouded, and a severe thunder- 
storm passed over ;—of course no observations on shooting stars 
could be made. We retired as early as 10 P.M., and I do not 
know whether at a later hour any observations on meteors were 
made at that place.” 
It appears from the above, that in Europe, at least, the meteoric 
shower of August, 1837, was more abundant on the night of the 
9th, than on the night of the 10th. At Paris on the 10th, two 
observers saw 107 meteors in an hour; while on the 9th, in the 
