OBSERVATIONS OF LUMINOUS METEORS. 79 



Nickeliferous iroa 14'63 



Magnetic pyrites 3-OG 



Olivine 43-Oi 



Bronzite, a hornblende with a little albitc or ortho- 



clase, and chrome irou 39-27 



100-00 



With the bronzite there may also be some enstatite, which would bo con- 

 founded with the former if existing in the stone." 



2. Moutereau (Seine et Marne), France, November 1871. — " It is stated 

 that an aeroUte weighing 127 lbs. fell lately near Montereau (Seine et Marne), 

 in Trance. It appears to have come from the east, and burst with a loud 

 explosion, giving a bright blue light. It is of an irregular spheroid shape, 

 and black, and is to be sent to the Academy of Sciences," — ' Nature,' Novem- 

 ber 30th, 1871. 



IV. Meteokic Showehs. 



In the prosecution of a system of observations on the annual meteor- 

 showers of the past year, proposed to engage the constant attention of the 

 Committee since their last Report, a more than usually abundant series of 

 successful observations were made, exhibiting with greater completeness than 

 in previous years the general character of the displays, which have presented 

 themselves with more than ordinary prominency on each of the annual 

 shower-meteor dates. 



A first description of the observations collected at the several British Asso- 

 ciation Stations <^ the nights of the 9 th to the 12th of August last is con- 

 tained in the Quarterly Journal of the Meteorological Society for the 15th 

 of November, 1871, where the numbers of meteors mapped at the different 

 stations, and their rate of frequency at certain places where their numbers 

 were counted in successive hours and half-hours, were for the most part fully 

 stated. The following are some additional observations relating especially to 

 this latter point, and to the general characters of the August shower in 1871, 

 as they were recorded by the different observers. 



The numbers seen per hour by Mr. Wood at Birmingham were, on the night 

 of the 9th twelve, on the 10th twenty-four, and on the 11th sixteen. The 

 meteors came in groups, with lulls ; they were mostly small, and with a much 

 larger proportion than usual of orange-coloured and train-bearing meteors. 



In the watch kept by Captain Maclear at the Royal Naval College at 

 Portsmouth on the night of the 10th, the sky was throughout clear or over- 

 spread with such a slight haze as only occasionally to dim the faintest stars ; 

 and all the brightest meteors visible were noted between 11 o'clock p.m. and 

 2 o'clock A.M. from a favourable point of view upon the College roof, where 

 a number of the brightest meteors visible between ll*" 45™ and 12'' 45°* 

 was also added to the list by Lieutenant Mathias, whose attention was di- 

 rected towards a different quarter of the sky ; and the number of meteors 

 visible in a somewhat less favourable position between lO"" and ll** p.m. was 

 also counted alone by Captain Maclear. Deducting one quarter of the 

 meteors seen between 11'' 45'" and 12'' 45"" as having been observed by 

 Lieut. Mathias, the remaining numbers of bright meteors seen by Captain 

 Maclear alone in the successive half-hours ending, during the night of 



Aug. 10th, at 10" SO" 11", 11" 30"", 12", 12" 30'", 13", 13" 30"', 14", Total 

 were 5 10 10 12 21 22 14 23 117, 



showing an increase in the rate of frequency until the end of the Avatch. 



