November 7, 1895] 



NATURE 



! cwster, they may be recommended to study his original paper 

 ///. Trans., 1814, p. 397), when they will see that such a 

 tling of it is both incorrect and incomplete. 



F. A. Bather. 



Xatural History Museum, October 28. 



THE STAR SHOWERS OF NOVEMBER. 



■\1 /"ELL may Mr. Greg, in his catalogue of meteoric 

 * * radiants, published in 1876, affix a remark 

 indicating the all-surpassing character of the mid- 

 November meteors. For if there is one star shower 

 more striking than all the rest, it is assuredly the 

 Leonids. Every one who has seen the phenomenon 

 at its best, is prepared to admit that it furnishes 

 a grander spectacle than any other system, and will 

 ■ have realised that, once seen, it impresses itself 

 indelibly upon the memory. There can be very few 

 people living now who witnessed the great shower in 

 America on the morning of November 14, 1833, but 

 there are many Englishmen who vividly remember the 

 fine but less splendid exhibition of 1866. With a swift- 

 ness unsurpassed among meteor streams, and with a 

 brilliancy quite their own, the Leonids belong to the 

 most striking class of these bodies, and offer a great 

 distinction to the slow and gentle flights of the Andro- 

 medes, or meteors of Biela's comet which present them- 

 selves about a fortnight later. It is true the Leonids 

 are only manifested, in vast abundance, once in a genera- 

 tion, and that, considered as an annual display, they 

 usually fall below the strength of the August Perseids. 

 But, considering all things, the November shower is 

 undoubtedly entitled to precedence. The writer saw the 

 Leonids in 1866, he also observed the rich displays of 

 Andromedes in 1872 and 1885, and has been fortunate 

 enough to witness many bright returns of the Perseids 

 and of other prominent systems ; but, of all such 

 spectacles, one only, by its surpassing splendour, created 

 an impression which still lives fresh in the memory, and 

 that was the Leonids of November 1866. 



The similar display which occurred in 1833, may be 

 regarded as a very auspicious event, since it attracted 

 attention to an important branch of astronomy which had 

 been systematically neglected. Men began to seriously 

 regard a phenomenon capable of giving such a remark- 

 able sky picture, and the facts relating to it were collected 

 and discussed. But the meteor showers of 1833 and 

 1799 were understood to be very exceptional events, and 

 they had not been observed with that attentive regard to 

 details which is so essential in this class of observation. 

 Astronomers, however, were led to suppose that historical 

 records might contain references to similar phenomena 

 witnessed in ancient times, and Herrick, Quetelet, Arago 

 and others, on consulting old works, found a number of 

 descriptions of star-showers preceding that of 1799? and 

 obviously of the same character. These occurred in 902, 

 931, 934, 1002, iioi, 1202, 1366, 1533, 1602, and 1698. A 

 list of the dates was given by Prof. Newton in the 

 American Journal of Science for May 1864, and he found, 

 on comparing the intervals separating the various returns, 

 that these brilliant meteoric apparitions visited us four 

 times in every 133 years. The descriptions of them were 

 quaint and imperfect, and of little scientific value apart 

 from affording an important clue as to the period of the 

 swarm ; but it may be interesting to quote from a few of 

 them. In October 902, a vast concourse of falling stars 

 •were scattered over the sky as thick as rain. On October 

 19, 1202, "stars shot hither and thither in the heavens 

 eastward and westward, and flew against one another like 

 a swarm of locusts ; this phenomenon lasted until day- 

 Ijreak ; people were thrown into consternatio n and cried 



NO. 1358, VOL. 53] 



to God the Most High with confused clamour." A Por- 

 tuguese chronicle thus refers to the shower of 1366: 

 " Twenty-two days of the month of October being past, 

 three months before the death of the king Don Pedro of 

 Portugal, there was in the heavens a movement of the 

 stars such as men never before saw or heard of. At mid- 

 night, and for some time after, all the stars moved from 

 the east to the west, and after being collected together 

 they began to move, some in one direction, and others in 

 another. And afterwards they fell from the sky in such 

 numbers and so thickly together that as they descended 

 low in the air they seemed large and fiery, and the sky 

 and air seemed to be in flames, and even the earth 

 appeared as if ready to take fire." Coming down to 

 modern displays, Humboldt saw thousands of bolides and 

 falling stars succeed each other during four hours on the 

 morning of November 13, 1799. The phenomenon re- 

 turned in 1 83 1 and following years, and the facts may be 

 referred to seriatim : — 



1831 November 13 a.m. An account of this shower was 

 given to M. Arago by one of the officers of the French brig 

 Loiret, as follows: "The sky being perfectly cloudless, and a 

 copious dew falling, we have seen a number of shooting stars 

 and luminous meteors of great dimensions. During upwards 

 of three hours two per minute were seen. One of these meteors 

 which appeared in the zenith left an immense train from east to 

 west, like a luminous band, and the light it gave did not dis- 

 appear for six minutes." 



1832 November 13 a.m. Capt. Hammond, of the ship Resti' 

 tution, then in the Red Sea, off Mocha, says: " From i a.m. 

 until daylight there was a very unusual phenomenon in the 

 heavens. It appeared like meteors bursting in every direction. 

 On landing in the morning I inquired of the Arabs if they 

 had noticed the above. They said they had been observing it 

 most of the night, but had never seen the like before." 



1833 November 13 a.m. The phenomenon continued during 

 seven hours. At Boston the number of meteors was considered 

 to equal one-half of the flakes which filled the air in an ordinary 

 fall of snow. The number visible was estimated as upwards of 

 240,000. Another observer stated that between 4 and 6 a.m. 

 about 1000 meteors per minute might have been counted. 



1834 November 13 a.m. A large number of shooting stars 

 seen in the United States. 



1835 and 1836. Many meteors observed on same date. In 

 the latter year, on November 13 a.m., an immense number of 

 meteors made their appearance between midnight and daylight, 

 but the display did not equal the shower of 1833. 



1864 November 13 a.m. An observer on board the steam- 

 ship Ellora, off Malta, wrote on November 14 as follows : 

 ' ' There was a grand display of meteors from midnight to 

 4h. a.m., all through the watch, the night before last. The 

 watch, an old ' salt ' and an intelligent man, said that it was the 

 grandest shower he had ever seen." None were visible on the 

 morning of November 14. 



1865 November 13 a.m. Between ih. and 5h. a.m. 279. 

 meteors were seen by six observers at Greenwich, and it was 

 computed that the total number visible during that period must 

 have been fully 1000. Prof. Herschel noted 71 meteors between 

 midnight and 3 a.m. At Cambridge University 98 meteors 

 were observed between midnight and 2 a.m. 



1866 November 14 a.m. 8485 meteors were counted by 

 several observers at Greenwich. Mr. Wood, at Birmingham, 

 estimated that between ih. and ih. 30m. a.m. meteors appeared 

 at the rate of 3600 per hour. The maximum occurred at about 

 ih. lom. a.m. when Dr. Burder, of Bristol, counted 80 per 

 minute. From the combined observations of several persons 

 looking in different directions, Mr. Lawton, of Hull, made the 

 number of meteors to have been 144 per minute for nineteen 

 minutes from I2h. S8m. to ih. 17m. a.m. 



1867 November 14 a.m. Weather generally unfavourable in 

 England. At St. George, Grenada, there " was observed before 

 day-break a shower of luminous meteors flying about in every 

 direction and of every conceivable magnitude." At the Univer- 

 sity Observatory, Toronto, four observers counted 2287 meteors 

 between midnight and 6 a.m. Of these 1345 were seen during 

 the hour from 4 to 5 a.m. 



