104 REPORT — 1872. 



April last by the appearance of some conspicuously blight meteors, to whose 

 characteristic brilliancy Mr. J. E. Clark drew particular attention in the 

 following communication to ' Nature ' of May 2nd, 1872 (the meteors 

 alluded to by Mr. Clark are described in the foregoing list): — 



" I noticed in your Number of last week the account of a brilliant meteor 

 observed in Cumberland on April 19th. Now 1 had reported to me a very 

 similar meteor at nearly the same time (about 8^ 40" p.m.), an account of 

 which I forwarded, with the other results of my night's watch, to Mr. A. S. 

 Herschel, who would gladly receive any further report of the same ; un- 

 fortunately I have not the Number of 'Nature' at hand, and therefore 

 cannot make a personal application to your correspondent. On the same 

 evening, about 11'' 7."\ I myself saw an exceedingly brilliant meteor, which 

 fell to a point just south of Vega. It is curious that both of these came 

 from the radiant situated at about R. A. 155°, N. Uecl. 47°, or rather from 

 one of the group of radiants there situated, M^ of Heis, 56 and 52 of Schia- 

 parelli. It would be an interesting point of investigation whether the 

 meteors from that radiant-point are of peculiar brightness." — J. E. Clark, 

 April 30th, 1872. 



The meteor seen by Mr. Clark at York was seen at the same time at 

 Hawkhurst ; and the direction of its apparent i>ath there, prolonged back- 

 wards, meets its similarly prolonged track, as observed at York, near ^ UrsiB 

 Majoris, very near the position of the radiant-point M^. The bright meteors 

 described in the above list on April 5lh and 19th, and May 3rd, appear all 

 to have diverged from the same group of meteor-radiants in Ursa Major. 

 Those recorded on March 26th, April 12th and 22nd, radiated from centres 

 of a group of apparently equally bright meteor-showers, S^_ g_ ^, in the neigh- 

 bourhood of Virgo and Comae Berenices. 



On the evenings of the 12th, 13th, and 14th of April, 1872, Mr. Greg 

 watched at Buntingford, Herts, for an early appearance of the April meteor- ' 

 showers from the direction of Cerberus or Lyra (QHj, QH.,), connected to- 

 gether apparently in one meteor-system making its appearances on the 13th 

 and 19th-20th of April. The former radiant-point was noted from the paths 

 of nine small shooting-stars, seen in about two hours on the morning of the 

 13th of April, 1864, by Prof. A. S. Herschel at Hawkhurst* ; and no appear- 

 ance of this shower appears to have been again visible in subsequent years. 

 Its radiant position at E. A. 270°, N. Decl. 25°, was yet distinctly marked, 

 the meteors resembling each other even more closely than those of the group 

 from Lyra in their appearance, and moving in swift courses over all parts of 

 the sky from a region of somewhat diffuse radiation, extending to but not 

 exceeding the limits of the small constellation Cerberus (Bode), with an 

 average centre at about the position named. By its close neighbourhood to 

 the well-established radiant-point of the LyraVds at about R. A. 278°, N. Decl. 

 34°-5 1, it appears to have been an early commencement of that shower, and 

 an integral part of the meteor-system which was first shown by Drs. Weiss and 

 D' Arrest to be apparently connected with the periodic orbit of the Comet I, 

 1861. Mr. Greg's watch for the early reappearance of the group on the 

 above date was unsuccessful, two small meteors only being observed from the 

 radiant DG (in the head of Draco), and two meteors radiating from the 

 direction of /j Hcrculis, during a very careful watch on each of the above- 

 named nights. 



Shortly after the end of April last, a communication from Mr. AV. F. Den- 



* Eeport for 1864, pp. 40 and 98. 



t See these Reports for 1864, p. 98, and 1868, p. 399. 



