NOTES. cliii 



( 6W ) p. 428. Saigey, p. 151 ; and onErman's determination of the points 

 of " convergence," diametrically opposite to the points of radiation or de- 

 parture, Saigey, p. 125129. 



( 694 ) p. 428. Heis, Period. Sternschn. S. 6. (Compare Aristot. Problem, 

 xxvi. 23 ; Seneca, Nat. Quaest. lib. i. 14 : " ventum signifieat stellarum dis- 

 currentium. lapsus, et quidem ab ea parte qua erumpit.") I myself long 

 believed (and particularly while I was staying at Marseilles, at the time of the 

 French expedition to Egypt) ill the influence of wind on the direction of 

 shooting stars. 



( 695 ) p. 429. Kosmos, Bd. i. S. 395 ; Engl. edit. p. xxi. 



( 696 ) p. 429. I am indebted for all the part of the text to which marks of 

 quotation are appended, to the kind communications of Herr Julius Schmidt, 

 Adjunct to the Astronomical Observatory at Bonn. On his earlier investiga- 

 tions, from 1842 to 1844, see Saigey, p. 159. 



( 69 p. 431. Yet I saw myself, in the Pacific (13fc N. lat.), a considerable 

 fall of shooting stars on the 16th of March, 1803. Two streams of meteors 

 were also seen in the month of March, in China, 687 years before our era. 

 (Kosmoa, Bd. i. S. 133 ; Engl. edit. p. 118.) 



( 698 ) p. 433. A fall of shooting stars quite similar to that of 1836, October 

 21, Old Style, of which the younger Boguslawski found the account in Benesse 

 de Horovic Chronicon Ecclesise Pragensis (Kosmos, Bd. i. S. 133 ; Engl. ed. 

 p. 118), is described in a discursive manner in the celebrated historical work 

 of Duarte Nunez do Liao (Chronicas dos Reis de Portugal reformadas, Parte 

 i. Lisb. 1600, fol. 187), but is there transferred to the night from the 22d to 

 the 23d of October. Were two streams seen on different nights in Bohemia 

 and on the Tagus, or may we not rather suppose that one of the two chroni- 

 clers was in error by a day ? The following are the words of the Portuguese 

 historian: "Vindo o auno de 1366 sendo andados xxii dias do mes de 

 Octubro, tres meses antes do fallecimento del Rei D. Pedro (de Portugal), so 

 fez no ceo hum movimento de estrellas, qual os homies nao virao nem 

 ouvirao. E foi que desda inea noite por diante correrao todalas strellas do 

 Levante para o Ponente, e^icabado de serem juntas comesarao a correr humas 

 para hurna parte e outras para outra. E deapois descerao do ceo tantas e tarn 

 spessas, que tauto que forao baxas no ar, pareciao grandes fogueiras, e q.ue o 

 ceo e o ar ardiao, e que a mesuia terra queria arder. O ceo parecia partido 

 em muito spa^o. Os que isto viao, houverao tarn grande medo e pavor, que 

 stavao como attonitos, e cuidavao todos de ser mortos, e que era vinda a fim 

 do mundo." 



(*"") p. 433. Still closer coincidences in point of time might have been 



