SHOWERS OF SHOOTING STARS. 233 



tion from the attendant caused me to look up from 

 the eye-piece just in time to catch a glimpse of a fine 

 shooting star, which, like a great sky-rocket, but with- 

 out its accompanying noise, shot across the sky over 

 our heads. About this time I was joined at the telescope 

 by Lord Oxmantown, as he then was, but who is now the 

 present distinguished Earl of Rosse, and we resumed our 

 observations of the nebulae, but a grander spectacle soon 

 diverted our attention from these faint objects. The great 

 shooting star which had already appeared was merely the 

 herald announcing the advent of a mighty host. At first 

 the meteors came singly, and then, as the hours wore on, 

 they arrived in twos and in threes, in dozens, in scores, 

 in hundreds. Our work at the telescope was forsaken ; 

 we went to the top of the castellated walls of the great 

 telescope and abandoned ourselves to the enjoyment of the 

 gorgeous spectacle. 



To number the meteors baffled all our arithmetic ; 

 while we strove to count on the one side many of them 

 hurried by on the other. The vivid brilliance of the 

 meteors was sharply contrasted with the silence of 

 their flight. We heard on that marvellous night no 

 sounds save those with which we were familiar. The 

 flights of the celestial rockets were attended with no 

 noises that we could hear. The meteors were no doubt 

 somewhat various as to size, but the characteristic feature 

 of this shower, as contrasted with another great shower I 

 have also seen, was the remarkable brilliance of the shoot- 

 ing stars. It was their exceptional splendour even more 

 than their innumerable profusion that gave to the shower 

 its peculiarity. As to the actual hrilliancv of the meteor^ 



