METEORIC ASTRONOMY. Ill 



an orbit as that of Tempel's comet and the Leonides me- 

 teors. 



He shows that other comets and meteoric zones are sim- 

 ilarly allied to other planets, and thus it may be that the 

 falling stars and comets are fragments of Jupiter, Saturn, 

 Uranus, or Neptune. Verily, if an astronomer of the last 

 generation were to start up among us now, he would be 

 astounded at modern presumption. 



The star shower of November 27th, and its connection 

 with Biela's broken and lost comet, referred to in my last 

 letter, are still subjects of research and speculation. On 

 November 30th Professor Klinkerfues sent to Mr.Pogson, of 

 the Madras Observatory, the following startling telegram: 

 " Biela touched earth on 27th. Search near Theta Cen- 

 tauri." 



Mr. Pogson searched accordingly from comet-rise to 

 sunrise on the two following mornings, but in vain ; for 

 even in India they have had cloudy weather of late. On 

 the third day, however, he had "better luck," saw some- 

 thing like a comet through an opening between clouds, and 

 on the following days was enabled to deliberately verify 

 this observation and determine the position and some 

 elements of the motion of the comet, which displayed a 

 bright nucleus, and faint but distinct tail. 



This discovery is rather remarkable in connection with 

 the theoretical anticipation of Professor Klinkerfues; but 

 the conclusion directly suggested is by no means admitted 

 by astronomers. Some, have supposed that it is not the 

 primary Biela, but the secondary comet, or offshoot, which 

 grazed the earth, and was seen by Mr. Pogson; others that 

 it was neither the body, the envelope, nor the tail of either 

 of the comets which formed the star shower, but that the 

 meteors of November 27th were merely a trail which the 

 comet left behind. 



A multitude of letters were read at the last and previous 

 meeting of the Astronomical Society, in which the writers 

 described the details of their own observations. As these 

 letters came from nearly all parts of the world, the data 

 have an unusual degree of completeness, and show very 



