Stone*jfallg from tbe Sftg 127 



asteroids." Mr. Monck assisted the late Mr. Harvey 

 in compiling a table of these stone-falls for the Eoyal 

 Astronomical Society of Canada in the year 1903, 

 arranging them according to the time of year they 

 fell, and he thinks that the tendency to grouping was 

 sufficiently obvious. The recurrence of the falls at 

 the same date after one year or two years was, he 

 believes, more marked than the indications of longer 

 periods. 



Taking the month of May, which is the most prolific 

 of the year in stone-falls, Mr. Monck found one on 

 May 8th, 1829, and one on the 9th in the years 1827, 

 1894 and 1895 ; one on May 14th, 1861, and another 

 in 1864 ; one on the 17th in 1877, and another in 

 1879 ; one on the 20th in 1874, and another on the 

 21st in 1871 ; one on the 22nd in 1868, and another in 

 1869 ; one on the 24th in 1892, on the 26th in 1893, 

 on the 27th in 1866 and 1895, and on May 30th, 1866. 

 As the total number of stone -falls does not much 

 exceed 300, these figures are with reason looked upon 

 by Mr. Monck as remarkable. " I think," he con- 

 cludes, " that these aerolites are of the same nature 

 as ordinary meteors, and that they escape dissipation 

 in the air owing to their slower motion, and possibly 

 their larger size. They probably travel in swarms or 

 clouds, but not so dense as some of the other meteor 

 showers which fail to produce aerolites owing to their 

 velocity. The individual aerolite may perhaps be 

 regarded as a very small asteroid." 



So far as ordinary meteors are concerned, the 

 second half of the year is richer in them than the 

 first, a fact which is thus explained by the Rev. M. 

 Davidson, F.B.A.S., Director of the British Astronomical 



