J214 C0 3MOS. 



ber, 1846, upon the average, 27 to 33.) So variable ia tlie 

 abundance of the periodic streams in individual years ; but 

 the number of the falling meteors always remains consider- 

 ably greater than in ordinary nights, which show in one hour 

 only four or five sporadic falls. The m'^teors appear to be 

 the most seldom in Jaauaiy (calculating from the 4th), Feb- 

 ruary, and March. ^ 



"Although the August and November periods are justly 

 the most celebrated, still, since the shooting stars have been 

 observed with greater accuracy, as to their number and par- 

 allel direction, yet five others have been discovered. 



January : during the first days between the 1st and 3d ; 

 probably somcA^hat doubtful. 



Apiil : 18th or 20th? already conjectured by Arago. 

 (Great streams: 25th of April, 1095, 22d of April 1800, 

 20th of April, 1803 ; Cosmos, vol. i., p. 125-126. An 

 nuaire for 1836, p. 297.) 

 May: 26th? 



July: 26th to the 30th; Gluetelet. Maximum prop- 

 erly between the 27th and 29th of July. The most an- 

 cient Chinese observations gave Edward Biot (unfortunate- 

 ly too soon taken away) a general maximum between the 

 18th and 27th of July. 



August, but before the Laurentius stream, especially be- 

 tween the 2d and 5th of the month. For the most part, 

 no regular increase is remarked from the 20th of July t4 

 the 10 th of August. 



The Laurentius stream itself, M usschenbrock 



and Brandes {Cosmos, vol. i., p. 124, and note >). Decided 

 maximum on the 10th of August ; observed for many years. 

 (According to an old tradition, which is diffused among 

 the mountain regions about Pelion in Thessaly, on the feast 

 of the Transfiguration, the 6th of March, the heavens open 

 during the night, and the lights (Kav5r]Xia) appear in the 

 midst of the opening ; Herrick, in Silliman's Amer. Jour- 

 nal, vol. xxxvii., 1839, p. 337 ; and duetelet, in the Nouv. 

 Mem. de V Acad, de Bruxelles, tom. xv., p. 9.) 



October : the 19th and the days about the 26th ; due- 

 telet ; Boguslawski, in the ^' Arbeiteiuder schles. GeselU 

 scliaftfur vaterl. Culture 1843, p. 178 ; and Heis, p. 83. 



* 1 have, however, myself observed a considerable fall of shooting 

 stars on the T6th of March, 1803, iu the South Sea (Lat. IS^o N.). 

 Also, 687 years oefore our era. tvf c weteor-strearas were seen in China, 

 in the month of ivlareii {^Cosmos, vol. i., p. 128). 



