214 COSMOS. 



her, 1846, upon the average-, 27 to 33.) So variable is the 

 abundance of the periodic streams in individual years ; but 

 the number of the falling meteors always remains consider- 

 ably greater than in ordinary nights, whioh show in one hour 

 only four or five sporadic falls. The meteors appear to be 

 the most seldom in January (calculating from the 4th), Feb- 

 ruary, and March. * 



" Although the August and November periods are justly 

 the most celebr-ated, still, since the shooting stars have been 

 observed with greater accuracy, as to their number and par- 

 allel direction, yet five others have been discovered. 



January : during the first days between the 1st and 3d ; 

 probably somewhat doubtful. 



April: 18th or 20th? already conjectured by Amgo. 

 (Great streams: 25th of April, 1095, 22d of April 1800, 

 20th of April, 1803 ; Cosmos, vol. i., p. 125-126. An 

 nuairei'oT 1836, p. 297.) 

 May: 26th? 



July: 26th to the 30th; duetelet. Maximum prop- 

 erly between the 27th and 29th of July. The most an- 

 cient Chinese observations gave Edward Biot (unfortunate- 

 ly too soon taken away) a general maximum between the 

 18th and 27th of July. 



August, but before the Laurentius stream, especially be- 

 tween the 2d and 5th of the month. For the most part, 

 no regular increase is remarked from the 20th of July to 

 the 10th of August. 



The Laurentius stream itself, M usschenbrock 



and Brandes ( Cosmos, vol. i., p. 124*and note ;). Decided 

 maximum on the 10th of August ; observed for many years. 

 (According to an old tradition, which is diffused among 

 the mountain regions about Pelion in Thessaly, on the feast 

 of the Transfiguration, the 6th of March, the heavens open 

 during the night, and the lights (Kavdrjhia) appear in the 

 midst of the opening ; Herrick, in Silliman's Amer. Jour- 

 nal, vol. xxxvii., 1 839, p. 337 ; and Cluetelet, in the Nouv. 

 Mem. de VAcad. de Bruxelles, torn, xv., p. 9.) 



October : the 19th and the days about the 26th ; Q,ue- 

 telet ; Boguslawski, in the " Arbeiten der schles. Gesell- 

 schaftfur vaterl. Cultur," 1843, p. 178 ; and Heis, p. 83. 



* I have, however, myself observed a considerable fall of shooting 

 stars on the 16th of March, 1803, in the South Sea (Lat. 13fc N.). 

 Also, 687 years uefore our era.. r\* -i irieteor-st-earas were seen in China, 

 in the month of ivlafcl (Cosmos, vol. i., p. 128). 



