198 THE BORDERLAND OF SCIENCE. 



present time (7.30) a very great shower of meteors 

 has fallen. They still continue. The radiant is in 

 Andromeda.' 



It thus appears certain that the display of November 

 27 was a shower of Bielan meteors. But the reader 

 may desire to have some evidence showing that this 

 is not an after-thought, but in accordance with ideas 

 expressed before the display took place. It may be 

 well, therefore, to mention that, in the Monthly Notices 

 of the Astronomical Society published on October 24, 

 1872, a month before the star-shower, there appeared 

 a list of 132 meteor streams, amongst which is one 

 (No. 120), whose date is set at November 30 by the 

 Italian observers, Schiaparelli and Zezioli, while our 

 English meteor-students set it down for November 25; 

 and not only is the radiant of this shower set in An- 

 dromeda, but the remark is appended that the shower 

 is 'supposed by d' Arrest and Weiss to be connected 

 with Biela's comet.' Then, in the same number, but 

 in another article, Professor Herschel invites astro- 

 nomers to be on the watch for a display of Bielan 

 meteors, mentioning that * the date of the earth's pas- 

 sage through the comet's orbit now falls in the end of 

 November.' 



But the actual appearance of the shower, so soon 

 after Biela's comet had passed, combined with the 

 perfect agreement between the movements of the 

 meteors and the position of the comet's path, must be 

 regarded as rendering certain that which before had 

 been but highly probable. Those who witnessed the 



