328 Shooting Stars of August 9 and 10, 1840. 
the discussion of the subject is not without its use to a large class 
of readers, by making them more familiar with some of the mi- 
nutize of an interesting and in many respects a new science, and 
by inspiring them with greater confidence in the degree of per- 
fection to which magneticians have arrived in their observations. 
They will I-hope feel more interest in the observations cf Prof. 
Loomis himself, who is furnished with the best of instruments, 
not only in magnetism, but in meteorology and astronomy, and 
is in all of these departments an industrious and accurate ob- 
server. | 
Could the necessary labor be performed, such charts as would 
exhibit the lines of equal dip, equal variation, and equal intensity 
in all of their various windings, including all of the so called 
local influences, minutely true and faithful to nature, I believe 
some new generalizations would be obtained. Possibly it might 
appear that particular geological formations are associated with 
some peculiarities of magnetism. There was an indication of 
this kind in the survey of Iowa, to the Report of which the read- 
er is referred. But to establish a generalization requires the con- 
currence of numerous instances of the same kind; the change of 
magnetism with a change of minerals might in a a single instance 
= accident al. 
ical College of Ohio, at Cincinnati, oe 30, EES), 
—_—— ; : F : By 
Arr. VIII.— Observations on the Shooting Stars of August 9th 
and 10th, 1840; communicated by Epwarp C. Herrick, 
Rec. Sec. Conn. Acad. 
In 1839, the night of the tenth of August appeared to be that 
on which the meteors of this epoch arrived at their maximum. 
The present being leap-year, our attention was directed more par- 
ticularly to the night of the 9th, as that which would this year 
probably afford the greatest number. Some desultory observa- 
tions were, however, as usual, made previous to this date. The 
evenings of August 1, 2, 3, and 4, were almost entirely overcast 
: =— late hour. The evening of the 5th was clear, but the 
moon; eight days old, considerably impaired the light of the stars. 
ss 9h: 30m. tol iis Ra M. I noted four meteors, all as large as 
stars of , and three of them with trains. The 
