METEORS AND METEORITES. 



545 



tions were made at many points in this country, 

 as at the Naval Observatory, Washington, by 

 Mr. Ferguson and others (see below, a); at 

 another locality in the same city by Mr. C. 

 A. Schott and others (J) ; at Haverford Col- 

 lege by Prof. S. J. Gurnrnere and others (c) ; at 

 Germantown by Mr. B. V. Marsh (d) ; at the 

 Miami University by Prof. O. N. Stoddard and 

 others (e) ; at Kenyon College (/) ; and also 

 elsewhere the results at the places indicated 

 being as follows : 



(a.) Time, night of November 13-l4th, 10 h 

 10 m P. M. to 6 h 7 ra A. M. 213 meteors; aver- 

 age of estimated durations of flight, 0.37 sec- 

 onds. 



(5.) Same night, 8 h p. M. to 2 h A. M. 107 

 meteors; average duration in 49 of the in- 

 stances, 0.41 seconds. 



(c.) Same night, 10 h 38 ra p. M. to 5 h 16 m A. M. 

 316 meteors; about 200 of these being lo- 

 cated upon a chart, the lines indicated a radia- 

 tion from the sickle in the constellation Leo. 



(d.) Same night, l h to 5 h 20 m A. M. 97 

 meteors ; rate, allowing for time lost in record- 

 ing, 26 per hour; |ths of all from the radiant 

 just given, or from near e Leonis. 



' (e.) Night of ll-l'2th, 10 h p. M. to 3 h A. M. 

 105 meteors 67 of them conformable [to 

 the radiant already named] ; and night of 12- 

 13th, 10 h P.M. to 2 h .A. M. 129 meteors 76 

 of them conformable. 



(/.) November ll-12th, 210 minutes from 

 ll h 22 P. M. 185 meteors; and 12-13th, 331 

 minutes from 10 h 20 ra P. M. 193 meteors; 

 lengths of arc of the flights mapped, from 2 to 

 25. 



In latitudes higher than that of New York, 

 generally, the state of the sky was unfavorable. 

 The results show a larger number of meteors 

 on November 13-14th than on ordinary nights, 

 and also than on the corresponding nights of 

 some years preceding (American journal of 

 Science, vol. xxxvii., p. 141). Mr. R. P. Greg, 

 of Manchester, England, reports the same year, 

 in reference to Europe generally, that the num- 

 ber of the November meteors has been increas- 

 ing from year to year, and that the hourly 

 numbers for the 14th exceed those for the 13th 

 of the month. The information met with in 

 regard to the November period of 1864 is too 

 limited to require insertion. 



In 1865, night of November 12-1 3th, Pro- 

 fessors Newton and Whitney, with two others 

 (at New Haven, it appears), saw, during 110 

 minutes from 3 h 55 m A. M., 360 meteors reck- 

 oned as conformable their paths, extended 

 backwards, cutting the area bounded by the 

 stars in the curve of the sickle in Leo and 70 

 unconformable ; the rate in all being 235 per 

 hour. The radiant appeared to be a small area 

 having its centre near that of the curve of the 

 stars already referred to say, in R. A. 148, 

 Dec. + 23 dimensions probably not more 

 than 3 a to 4 in any direction. The uncon- 

 formable meteors were generally less bright 

 than the conformable. From the morning of 

 VOL. v 35 A 



the 13th to that of the 14th, both the whole 

 number of meteors and the proportion of the 

 conformable ones to the whole had diminished; 

 and it is inferred that the earth was nearer the 

 node of the November " ring " on Monday 

 morning than on Tuesday, and that by Wednes- 

 day morning it had nearly or quite emerged 

 from the group. American Journal of Science, 

 January, 1866. 



August Period. Observations were made in 

 this country, August 9th and 10th, 1864, at 

 various points, though at many of these the 

 state of the sky was not favorable. At Chi- 

 cago, night of 9-1 Oth, in the periods, 10i h 

 ll._ 12 "_i"_2'>_3 1 ' 3$", Mr. F. Bradley and 

 others observed, respectively, 41, 139, 152, 260, 

 322, and 112 meteors, only a small proportion 

 of the whole unconformable. 



On the morning of August 9, 1865, Prof. A. 

 C. Twining observed, from 2 h 20 m to 3 h 45 m , 

 10 meteors, of which 9 conformed to a radiant 

 in R. A. 47, N. P. D. 33; on the morning of 

 the 10th, 2 h 25 m to 3 h 50"', 19 meteors, all con- 

 formable to a radiant of some 8 in R. A., and 

 centering in R. A. 42, N. P. D. 34 ; on the 

 night of the 12th-13th, 10 h 45 p. M., to O h 45 m 

 A. M., 16 meteors, 12 of them conformable to 

 a radiant in R. A. 52, N. P. D. 32 ; and on 

 the morning of the 14th, O h 10 m to l h 35 m 20 

 meteors, generally slow in angular velocity, and 

 scarcely belonging to any single radiant. The * 

 author believes that no mistake can exist in re- 

 gard to the shifting of the radiants during the 

 proper August period, which he extends from 

 the first morning hours of the 9th to, at farthest, 

 11 h P. M. of the 12th. From observations 

 made by Prof. Newton and several others at 

 New Haven, August 15-16th, in which 178 

 meteors were counted in 3 hours, the former 

 inferred that the whole number of flights visible 

 during a given time at one place will be at least 

 4.5 times but not greater than 5 times the 

 number that can be seen by one person. 



Mr. Greg states that the radiant for the August 

 period (1863, Mr. Herschel's summary), is near 

 y Persei. Signor Secchi and his assistants, at 

 the two stations of Rome and Civita Vecchia 

 (telegraphically connected), and on the nights 

 of August 5th to 10th, inclusive, observed dur- 

 ing a total time of 9 hours 26 minutes an average 

 of 41 meteors per hour, 93 of which in all were 

 'satisfactorily observed at both stations. The 

 hourly numbers increased till the 8th only ; and 

 the general radiant was between Cepheus and 

 Cassiopeia. But the length of the base-line 

 (65 kilometres) sufficed to show many of the 

 meteors in different constellations from the two 

 stations. This fact of parallax, the author 

 thinks, has been too much overlooked: it 

 amounted, in'some of the instances referred to,, 

 to from 15 to 40 ; and it was generally less 

 for the smaller meteors, indicating that the 

 brighter are as a rule nearer to the earth. 



Other Periods. Several other periods of un- 

 usual displays of shooting-stars, with correspond- 

 ing radiant points, have recently been made out. 



