A CATALOGUE OF OBSERVATIONS OF LUMINOUS METEORS. 41 



and as thatpossiblj" (say 1,50 miles) is above the average limit of visibility, we 

 perceive perhaps why we do not often see shooting-stars very low down in the 

 horizon. It might be desirable as frequently as possible to record the length 

 of the visible arcs described by shooting-stars, and the time in moving along 

 these arcs, to see if the average varies at difi'erent hours of the night, for dif- 

 ferent quarters of the heavens, as well as at different times of the year. 



F. In making averages from tabulated statements, say for a whole year, in 

 reference to meteors, the enovmous preponderance of meteors seen on a few 

 days only, viz. August 9-12 and November 10-13, which, being periodic 

 and generally moving in parallel right lines and in one direction, must have 

 a tendency to disturb to some extent any attempt to fairly tabulate the more 

 scattered observations during the rest of the year. 



However, Olmsted's account of the great meteor-shower in 1833 seems 

 to prove that there were then hardly any known meteoric appearances 

 (whether as regards tracks, luminosity, size, direction, velocity, &c.) which 

 were seen on that night that one is not accustomed to see or read of at 

 all other times put together. Most, too, were seen in the east, and moving 

 from thence towards the north-west; so that we might not unreasonably infer 

 that most shooting-stars at all times much resemble each other. 



G. Humboldt describes a shower in Mexico, on the night of the 12th of 

 November, 1799, thus : — " They rose from the horizon between the east and 

 north-east points, described arcs of unequal magnitude, and fell towards the 

 south." They were seen in many other parts of North and South America 

 on the same night, and in Labrador they were observed to fall down towards 

 the earth. 



No. 9. — Meteors of Augtist 1860. — At Paris, Coulvier-Gravier states the 

 mean hourly number at midnight, of shooting-stars, on August 9th was 62 ; 

 on August 10th, 54; or about ten times as large as in the middle of July. 

 At Rome, the observations of Secchi gave a decisive maximum on the 10th 

 of August. The observations of Bradley at Chicago, and of Herrick at New 

 Haven, Connecticut, U. S., gave the increase of shooting-stars on the nights 

 of the 9th and 10th of August, 1860, at about six times the common average, 

 and their apparent direction nearly all from the vicinity of the constellation 

 Perseus. 



At Yale College, Connecticut, U. S., 565 falling stars wereseenon the night 

 of the 9th of August and morning of the 10th, between 10 p.m. and 3 a.m., 

 by six observers. The majority first appeared in the south-west quarter of 

 the sky, with a westerly direction ; several left behind luminous trains, but 

 none appeared to explode : none seemed larger than Venus ; three-fourths 

 conformed to the usual radiant in Perseus. 



Meteors of November, 1860. — In the United States a slight tendency to an 

 increase over the average was noticed; the conformable ones coming from the 

 usual point in Leo, exactly as in the great shower of November 13th, 1833. 

 Professor Twining, of New York, observed on the morning of the 14-th four- 

 teen meteors, of which nine were conformable and five not conformable. 



The total number actually observed by Professor Kirkwood and five 

 assistants in Indiana, on the night of the 12th of November and morning of 

 the 13th, in six hours, amounted to 381, distributed as follows: — 



From 10 to 11 p.m 45 From 1 to 2 a.m. .... 66 



From 1 1 to midnight .... 66 From 2 to 3 a.m 90 



From midnight to 1 a.m . . . 68 From 3 to 4 a.m 46 



The Shooting-stars of August 1861. — "M. Coulvier-Gravier has forwarded 



