244 IN STARRY REALMS. 



arrives at the critical point of its path on the 15th of 

 November, during the time the mighty procession of 

 the long meteor stream is filing past. At once our globe 

 plunges into the current, and for a few hours must forge 

 its way across the stream, while all the time it is exposed 

 to a perfect hurricane of meteors. In their untold myriads 

 the little missiles dash themselves with unutterable pace 

 into the comparatively stagnant air-case in which this 

 world is enclosed. Destruction swift and complete is the 

 doom of every one of the meteors that has the misfortune 

 to graze our atmosphere. We on the earth's surface, 

 unmindful of the rapid voyage of our globe, only become 

 apprised of the singular cosmical event that is in progress 

 by seeing a beautiful shower of shooting stars. 



For a few hours the grand display lasts, that is, until 

 the earth has traversed the stream and once more resumed 

 its way through space comparatively void. Nor can any 

 more Leonids be seen until the following 15th of Novem- 

 ber, when again in its annual course the earth reaches the 

 locality of the last display. 



It will generally have happened that the whole of the 

 great shoal will have completely passed by the critical 

 point during the lapse of a twelvemonth, so that the earth 

 will at the next return only capture a few of the strag- 

 glers. Sometimes, however, it is found that the long 

 shoal has not had time, even in a year, to completely 

 hurry past the critical point. Accordingly the earth must 

 take another rush across the stream, and will again 

 encounter a meteoric tempest. We shall thus have two 

 grand displays of shooting stars in two consecutive years. 

 By the time the earth has once again fulfilled its course, 



