January 4, 1900] 



NATURE 



225 



Table II. — Times of Watch at Sioiigk, November 6th-l6th, 1899 ; Numbers of Meteors seen, and State of Skr. 



Table III. 



-Radiant-points of yj out of d^ Non-Leonid Meteors seen at Slough on November dth-ioth ; and of Five Leonids, ana 

 one K-Leonid among ten Meteors, on November \ith-\tth, 1899. 



Notes to the above six Showers ; regarding the general appearances of their Meteors. 



No. I. f, o Taiirids : —'Ra.iher long-pathedj evenly bright, yellow, or orange, star-like meteors ; with slight spark-tails, but leaving no streaks. One, on 

 November lolh, as bright as Sirius, near the south horizon, burst in mid-course with a yellow spark-cloud, projecting a fragment to the right, 

 and itself pursuing a deflected path onwards to sudden disappearance ; like thetannexed sketch (Fig. 2). This meteor may have been either a f , o, 

 or an e Tttu rid (from 6^', + 22°), as the path-line prolonged backwards passed nearly through both those radiant-points. About half a minute 

 after its appearance, an equally bright, white, Sirzus-Vike J> Monocerotid shot rapidly, V," in 0-6 seconds, to very near the north-west horizon 

 across /.rtc<rr/(i, leaving a fugitive white SI reak. These two were the on\y non-Leonid meteors seen in my watch, as bright as .S7r/«j ; and as 

 they belonged to two entirely distinct meteor-streams, it was a curious coincidence that they sh:uld both present themselves, with great 

 resemblance in appearance, within half a minute of each other. 



Xo. 2. a T.nrids : — Yellow star-like meteors, with sometimes intermittent and rekindling light ; no streaks or sparks. 



Xo. ;;. / Monocerotids : — Swift, yellowish-white, Leonid-\\V.e meteors, leaving tapered, greenish-white streaks. 



Xo. 4. <r Ursae Majorids : — Rather swift yellowish, stellar meteors, withoi:t sparks or streaks. An early member, apparently, of this meteor-stream was 

 seen this year on October 5th ; when among some meteor-paths mapped in two simultaneous watches, a 2nd magnitude shooting-star was noted 

 here, and at Farnborough (Hants, i« miles S.S.W. from Slough) by Mr. J. H. Bridger, at loh. 55m., the two path-descriptions of which were 

 in perfect geometrical accordance, and indicated the meteor's real path and radiant-point with much ex.-ictness. By the two mapped path-lines' 

 backward intersection, a little way in rear of both the tracks, the^ latter point was at 138°, +64°, close to this present shower's centre at 

 134°, + 67°, and to <r, t Ursae Majoris. The meteor traversed 14 miles in 0-7 second, from 51 miles over a point near Leighton Buzzard, Bed- 

 fordshire, to 44 miles over Little Hampton, near Princes Risborough, Bucks, from :i direction N.N.K., altitude 30°; and the speed of 20 miles 

 per second fell much short of the shower's proper parabolic meteor-speed then, of 37 miles per second. But from the shortness of the base-line, 

 affording but little parallactic displacement of the apparent paths, the concluded real height and length of path can scarcely be regarded as 

 very dependable, and the duration of flight, 0-7 second, recorded here, may also very possibly have been somewhat overrated. 



Xo. 5. « Leonids .'—Very swift, yellowish-white tapered meteors, leaving slight, white streaks. 



Xo. 6. y, f Leonids •.—'ii'Mxh, white or yellow, tapered meteors (Mostly seen through mist ; but one of ist magnit ide, seen in clear sky on November 

 14th, left a tapered, greenish-white streak for 2 seconds). 



NO. 1575, VOL. 61 



