GATHERING WORLD STUFF. 211 



in 1866. Another meteoric shower occurring annually about 

 the tenth of August has been identified with the third comet 

 of 1862. Also, the shower which occurs on the twenty-seventh 

 of November, and was particularly conspicuous in 1885, has 

 been connected with Biela's comet, first observed in 1826. 

 This is the comet which was parted. The fragments have not 

 appeared to view during several revolutions; and there is 

 reason to think nothing remains but dark trains of stones. 



So much is pretty well settled. There are numerous other 

 trains of meteoroidal matters which we have reason to regard 

 as worn out comets. In fact, since we have meteoric displays 

 on nearly every night of the year, must there not be as many 

 meteoroidal trains as there are distinct radiant points from 

 which the meteors shoot ? One train, you understand, might 

 touch our atmosphere on one side and another on a different 

 side. To our eyes, the motions of the ignited meteors would 

 be in all directions from the region of contact. That region 

 would be projected on some constellation, and would remain 

 fixed there though the earth rotated. So each radiant point 

 would imply a different contact a different swarm ; and ac- 

 cordingly there must be a hundred swarms or more which 

 touch our atmosphere. 



But reflect now, that a meteoroidal swarm is describing an 

 orbit about the sun, and we learn of its existence simply be- 

 cause it happens to pass very near the orbit of the earth, and 

 happens to pass at the time when the earth is there. If it 

 passed at a little greater distance, or passed always when the 

 earth was absent, we should know nothing of the swarm save 

 possibly as a comet, if not yet too much disintegrated to emit 

 light. How many chances against this favorable concurrence 

 of positions ! How many more swarms there must be which 

 never reveal to us their existence ! When we reflect that we 

 are brushed by say a hundred of them annually, must we not 

 conclude that there are thousands which sweep through space 

 unnoticed? I think the spaces around us must be full of 

 their motions. Were our vision perfect, we should see the I 

 heavens clouded by swarming meteoroids darting in every con- 1 



