492 



METEOES. 



meteors seen "between 11^ and 4 o'clock. The 

 time of maximum frequency he thought to be a 

 little before 4$ A. M. At 4 h 25 m , one observer 

 saw 140 in a minute, 4, 5, or 6 often being visi- 

 ble at once. 



Prof. T. H. Safford, of Chicago, with from 

 eight to thirty observers, made up the follow- 

 ing estimate : 



From 12li 0" 

 " 2 20 

 " 2 53 

 " 3 80 

 " 4 12 



to 2ii 20 m , 128 meteors. 

 " 2 53 143 " 

 " 8 80 653 " 

 " 4 12 1,529 " 

 " 5 45 857 " 



One observer at Chicago, looking at the ze- 

 nith, counted 420 between 3 h 60 m and 5 h 45 m . 

 These are reported as not included in the pre- 

 ceding count. 



At Ann Arbor, Mich., Prof. "Watson was pre- 

 vented by a high wind from making complete 

 observations. The number counted was as fol- 

 lows: 



From 8h 45 m to 3 55 m , 280 meteors. 



" 55 "4 5 185 " 



"45" 15 250 " 



4 15 "4 25 230 " 



" 25 " 85 115 " 



" 35 " 45 78 " 



At times the flight of meteors was so inces- 

 sant that only a portion could be counted. 

 Prof. Watson noticed particularly that in the 

 vicinity of the radiant point the light of the 

 meteors was of a sea-green tint, with occasion- 

 ally strong tints of the blue. The position of 

 the radiant point he found at half-past four to 

 be, "R. A. 150 45', Dec. + 21 55'. 



Prof. T. A. "Wylie, of the Indiana State Uni- 

 versity, assisted by several students, watched 

 from 9 h P. M. to 5 h A. M. ; but, owing to the hazi- 

 ness of the atmosphere, they counted only 535 

 meteors. The greatest number seen in a given 

 time was from 3" 35 m to 3 h 36| m , averaging 14| 

 in a minute. 



A writer in the San Francisco (Cal.) Times 

 said that nearly 500 meteors were counted 

 in half an hour between 1 and 2 A. M. A cor- 

 respondent of the Sacramento Union report- 

 ed that from I h 45 m to 5 h the meteors gradually 

 decreased in number. Dr. Harkness, of Cali- 

 fornia, says that when he was first notified of 

 the shower, at 20 minutes past 1 o'clock, the 

 meteors were falling at the rate of about 50 a 

 minute. 



Mr. George L. MacManus, of Chihuahua, 

 Mexico, says : " "When we first observed the me- 

 teors we attempted to count them. "We count- 

 ed 380 in about 10 minutes; but then they fell 

 so thick and fast that we gave up in despair. 

 Often 20 or 30 at a time were seen." 



Mr. Bradford, United States consul at Pe- 

 kin, China, saw the shower in the country, 

 about 50 miles N. N. "W. of that place. The 

 following account of his observations has been 

 made public : 



The moon was shining brightly, and occasional 

 clouds were visible in the southwest heavens, while 

 the wind came in puffs from the mountain ranges to 

 the northwest, when at about 5.15 A. M. his attention 



was first attracted by the wild shouting of his guide, 

 and he was not a little startled to find himself a wit- 

 ness to the annual meteoric shower in that quarter of 

 the world. The grand spectacle was displayed in an 

 arc of not less than 120 degrees in the northeastern 

 portion of the firmament, which at times seemed to 

 be rent in twain, from about 25 degrees of the zenith, 

 by solid masses of luminous bodies, of various magni- 

 tudes and surprising brilliancy, which darted in daz- 

 zling confusion across his vision, and again several 

 hundred of these meteors, of different sizes, would 

 be observed at the same time, all emitting the most 

 intense light, and the nebulse of the largest lasting 

 sometimes three minutes. One of these monsters 

 shone M'ith a distinctive brightness above that of the 

 moon, as it issued from about 15 degrees of the North 

 Star, and passed vertically below the horizon, giving 

 forth, as it fell, coruscations of various bright colors, 

 and when disappearing its nebulas resembled a water- 

 spout in high latitudes. It was not until quite 6.30 

 A. M. that the approaching dawn began to dim the 

 glory of this fiery exhibition, and the rising sun soon 

 brought an end to the exciting display. 



No unusual number of meteors were seen 

 in Europe on the morning of November 14th. 



Prof. Newcomb, of the Naval Observatory, 

 lias calculated proximately the parallax of 

 those few meteors of which accurate syn- 

 chronous observations were taken at different 

 places. He estimates the height of the brighter 

 meteors at 75 miles, and thinks that they were 

 extinguished at an average height of 55 miles. 

 The mean length of their path could hardly ex- 

 ceed 22 miles. "With regard to the probable 

 number, magnitude, and nature of the meteors, 

 he says : 



During the thickest of the shower they were 

 counted at the rate of three thousand per hour. It 

 may be estimated that the observers saw all that fell 

 within a circle of one hundred and fifty miles in di- 

 ameter, having its centre seventy-five milus south- 

 east from Washington. From this number, and their 

 velocity of forty miles per second, it would seem that, 

 in the thickest part of the stream traversed by the 

 earth November 18th, there was an average of one 

 meteoroid in nine hundred thousand cubic miles of 

 space. And supposing three hours to be the usual 

 time of a November shower, the thickness of the 

 stream from north to south would appear to be sixty 

 thousand miles. The meteoroids are distributed 

 along it, probably, at the rate of forty thousand to 

 the lineal mile, a million of meteoroids probably pass- 

 ing in a second. The data for estimating their mag- 

 nitude are slender. Several were so brilliant that 

 their reflection could be seen from the face of the 

 chronometer, even in the bright moonlight. This 

 last remark has been made by observers in other 

 places also on the same night. To throw so great a 

 light to the distance of one nundred and fifty miles, 

 at which distance some surely were, would require 

 several thousand millions of common candles. 



Prof. Newcomb believes, from various con- 

 siderations, that Comet 1, 1866, known as Tem- 

 ple's or Tuttle's comet, whose orbit the entire 

 November stream of meteors is known to fol- 

 low, is itself simply an agglomeration of meteors 

 just dense enough to be visible in the solar rays ; 

 and he thinks the same to be true of other tel- 

 escopic comets. 



Prof. Newton gives the following summary 

 of deviations from known observations : 



The eastern limit of the regions on the earth's sur- 

 face in which the shower was visible must have been 



