THE NOVEMBER METEORS. 115 



athwart the star-depths, have been almost as interesting to 

 astronomers as the showers of such bodies seen in 1799, 1833, 

 1866, and 1867. But it is not altogether impossible that 

 in the small hours ' ayont the twal ' to-morrow morning a 

 shower of meteors may be seen. For Schiaparelli (the Italian 

 astronomer who first started the ideas which led when pro- 

 perly followed up to the discovery of the relations existing 

 between meteors and comets) asserts that it has happened 

 before now that the November meteors have appeared 

 in great numbers in years lying midway between the times 

 of maximum display. These times are separated on the 

 average by about 33 J years. Thus, in 1799, there was a 

 great display of November meteors, a shower rendered 

 specially celebrated by Humboldt's description. In 1833 

 there was another, the display which so terrified the negroes 

 of South Carolina, but more interesting scientifically as 

 described by Arago. In 1866 the shower again attained its 

 maximum splendour, though the display of 1867 was little 

 inferior. It will not be till 1899 that another great shower 

 of November meteors may be confidently looked for. But 

 if Schiaparelli be right, it is quite possible that there may be 

 a shower this year, due to some scattered flight of the 

 November meteors which, delayed accidentally (through some 

 special perturbation) many hundreds of years ago, has come 

 in the course of ages to travel nearly half a circuit behind the 

 richest -part of the system, the ' gem of the meteor-ring/ as it 

 has been poetically called. Even, however, though no dis- 

 play of November meteors should be seen, yet the recogni- 

 tion of even a few scattered stragglers would be exceedingly 

 interesting to astronomers. A single meteor seen to-night 

 which could be regarded as certainly belonging to the 

 November system would suffice to show the possibility that 

 a whole flight of the November meteors might travel at a 

 similar distance behind the main body. It would be more 

 easy, however, to identify two such meteors than one, six 

 than two, and a score than half-a-dozen. The only way in 

 which a meteor can be questioned, so to speak, respecting 



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