of Lmminous Meteors. 



393 



nating colour of a great shower of falling stars is very rarely 

 given ; and on consulting M. Poey^s monthly tables, little can 

 be observed beyond the fact that the blue meteors are more nu- 

 merous in comparison with the orange during the months of 

 August, September, October, and November, than during the 

 rest of the year. M. Poey also makes the singular observation, 

 that the Chinese meteors " show a remai'kable constancy of tints 

 during a long period of years ; when an equally constant but 

 different scale of colour prevails, and this for several successive 

 periods." 



On turning to the monthly tables of the English observations, 

 we at once remark a great difference in the relative proportions 

 of the different colours. Thus, to confine our attention simply 

 to the months of August and November, when the gi-eat showers 

 usually occur, we find a difference that cannot be attributed to 

 mere accident. In the following Table, the fii'st two columns 

 give the actual number of observations in each month according 

 to the colour ; the second two, the same numbers reckoned to a 

 hundred parts ; and the fifth column, the average proportion of 

 the colours for the whole year as given in the Table on a prece- 

 ding page. There happens to be no observation of green or 

 purple during either of these months ; and for the sake of con- 

 densation I have added together the red and white-red, yellow 

 and white-yellow, blue and white- blue. 



Here we see at once that about an average amount of yellow 

 and of white meteors (or a little less) fall in each of these months ; 

 but August is marked by a great deficiency of orange, and a 

 great excess of blue meteors, while, on the contrary, November 

 exhibits comparatively few blue, and a very large proportion of 

 orange meteors, with a slight increase also of the red. On 

 looking at the grand displays about August 10 in the lists 

 of the Rev. Paden Powell, we note the large proportion of 

 blue meteors which stream across the heavens at that period, 

 a phsenomcnon I myself had the fortune to witness last year. 

 The November showers are not so distinctly marked in Prof. 

 Powell's catalogue ; but there is enough to indicate how meteors 

 emitting the less refrangible rays abound at that season. 



