92 KEPORT— 1872. 



were determined from the observations of the shower communicated to the 

 Committee by the observers for the British Association. The figure represents 

 in plane perspective the apparent paths of all the Perseids noted on the nights 

 of the 9th, 10th, and 11th of August, 1871, whose visible tracks were in the 

 immediate vicinity of the general radian-tregion of the shower. 



Meteor-showers in October, 1871 . — On the night of October 14th, between 

 ll*" and 12'' p.m., six meteors, as bright or brighter than Ist-magnitude 

 stars, were observed at Hawkhurst in one hour, radiating -with considerable 

 accuracy from a point near the head of Aries, and close to the point of first, 

 appearance on this date of the radiant R^ in Musca, which appears to contri- 

 bute bright meteors from the direction of this constellation during the prin- 

 cipal meteor-showers of October, November, and December, but from which 

 so many bright meteors in one hour as those seen at Hawkhurst on the above 

 date form an exceptional display. Another meteor, like one noted on this 

 date, as bright as Sirius, proceeded from the same radiant-point, passing over- 

 head at Hawkhurst, and leaving a faint streak, at 11'' 45'" p.m. on the 19th ; 

 and two scarcely less brilliant members of the same meteor-shower appeared, 

 with short courses and slow motion, near the radiant-point on the 21st of 

 October. Three or four bright meteors with swift motion and leaving bright 

 streaks on their tracks, proceeding apparently from circuinpolar radiants near 

 Aj^, ,5 and Fj, ^ in Cassiopeia and Auriga, were noted during the same short 

 watch at Hawkhurst which was kept on each of those dates. The sky was 

 overcast with rain and wind on the nights of the 18th and 19th at Hawk- 

 hurst, and at all the other places from which communications were received ; 

 and although occasional openings of the clouds allowed a few stars to be seen at 

 Hawkhurst, where the single bright meteor last noticed was observed, and at 

 Tooting, where Mr. H. W. Jackson kept a watch for them whenever the state 

 of the sky permitted, no other shooting-stars were recorded. But in a mode- 

 rately clear sky, from 7'' 45"" until 11'' p.m. on the 18th, six meteors of some 

 brightness were mapped at the Boyal Observatory, Greenwich, two of which 

 were directed from E.3, one from the north pole, and the rest from a radiant- 

 point near A^^ ^j in Cassiopeia, or F^ ^ in Auriga. 



On the night of the 20th the sky remained overcast at the southern 

 stations ; but at Birmingham, Sunderland, and Glasgow a few meteors were 

 visible through fog and haze, which generally obscured all stars less bright 

 than the third magnitude, until nearly midnight, when the sky gradually 

 became more clear. Three small shooting-stars were observed at Glasgow 

 by Mr. R. M'Clure between 1 1'' and 12'' p.m., and two by Mr. Wood at Bir- 

 mingham, as described in his observations on the shower. 



Between 9 o'clock and midnight on the same evening, four meteors, three 

 of which were directed nearly from R^, and one apparently from the north 

 pole, were observed by Mr. T. W. Backhouse at Sunderland ; they were 

 unconformable to the radiant (Schiaparelli, No. 30, B. A. Report for 1870, 

 p. 98), or to any of the other radiant-points noted by Mr. Backhouse in the 

 morning hours of this and the two following nights. Another bright and 

 unconformable meteor, seen on the same night, was also directed from the 

 north pole ; while the twenty-one remaining meteors, seen in the course of 

 about two hours of observation on the mornings of the 21st, 22nd, and 23rd 

 (and all but three on the earlier dates), indicated the return of the October 

 meteors, and presented some contemporaneous radiant-points, of which Mr. 

 Backhouse gives the following description in his remarks on these results of 

 his observations : — 



" The meteors marked A [twelve meteors noted in about an hour and a 



