88 BEPORT— 1872. 



appeared clear enough to me that there was more than one radiant, or that 

 a somewhat extensive space of the sky would be required if the tracks of all 

 the meteors were to be included in it. I believe, however, that the great 

 majority of the meteors will be found to have diverged from a spot rather 

 higher than the famous cluster in Perseus (33 ^vi), say about 1° above. 

 Meteors from this point have been plentiful each evening, and three quarters 

 of those observed between 11'' and 12'' on the 10th came from there. I 

 noticed that these followed each other rapidly, and that after a lull for a few 

 minutes, a radiant still higher would manifest itself, as will be indicated by 

 the map. The radiants in Ursa Major, Cygnus, and Pegasus were also 

 active, especially the latter ; but with one or two exceptions these meteors 

 were not particularly noted." 



From a very full projection of more than 300 meteors seen at York between 

 the 5th and the 12th of August, Mr. J. E. Clark obtained the proportions of 

 the meteors directed from each of the principal radiant-points of the shower 

 in 1871. "The proportion of the Persei'ds observed was about 85 per cent., 

 from Cygnus 7 per cent., from the radiant below e Pegasi about 4| per 

 cent., from Polaris about 2 per cent., and from an apparent radiant-point 

 in Aquarius about 1 per cent. One meteor was observed in Auriga, appa- 

 rently from a radiant-point near /3 Aurigse. 



" The main radiant on the 10th, as shown by the mapped courses, lay close 

 to 7] Persei ; but very many were directed from a Persei, or even lower still, 

 whilst a large number extended the radiant to x- Besides the central radiant, 

 there seemed to be one or two outlying points from which the tracks appear 

 to diverge. One of these seems to be between j3 and y Andromeda;, and 

 another by c Camelopardi. 



" Of meteors almost stationary, the best was one seen by Mr. Waller 

 and Mr. Brown just by rj Persei on the 8th. I observed some nearly 

 so, near y Persei on the 8th, below r/ on the 10th, and at ^ on the 11th, also 

 by V Draconis on the 10 th; and Mr. Brown saw one by p Cephei on 

 the 8th." 



In a letter in 'Nature' of August 17, 1871, Mr. Clark communicates the 

 numbers of the meteors seen on each night, together with some further par- 

 ticulars regarding the above radiant-points, which are here appended. 



" Having been engaged during the past Aveek in observations on the August 

 meteors, I thought a few of the results might be interesting to some of your 

 numerous subscribers. My regular observations extended fi'om Sunday night 

 to Friday night ; and, as the following Table will show, the weather was, with 

 the exception of one night, as favourable as could reasonably be desired. 

 From over 120 meteors mapped down (out of about 330 seen) it is evident 

 that, the principal radiant-point, or rather line, is a line drawn from a Persei 

 to y Persei, and onwards towards jj. One bright meteor was seen on the 8th, 

 just below T) Persei, which did not move more than i° in a second of time, 

 and left a cloud behind it lasting about two seconds. A remarkable feature 

 was the outlying radiants, as they appeared to be, one of which was situated 

 at or near 6 Cassiopeise, another near the star c of Camelopardalus. The 

 radiant situated between o Cygni and y Draconis is very well marked ; also a 

 radiant near y Cephei (where another almost stationary meteor was 

 observed), and one just below e Pegasi, towards a Aquarii; associated 

 apparently with the last is a radiant near the small lozenge in Delphinus, 

 above a Aquila. 



" In the following list of 312 meteors observed here, 242, or about 77 per 

 cent., were from the Perseus radiant or radiants : — 



