290 BEPORT — 1881. 



Report of a Committee, consisting of James Glaisher, F.R.S., 

 F.R.A.S., E. J. Lowe, F.R.S., Professor E. S. Ball, F.R.S., 

 Dr. Walter Flight, F.G.S., and Professor A. S. Herschel, 3I.A., 

 F.R.A.S., on Observations of Luminoios Meteors during the 

 year 1880-81. 



Op regular systematic observations of luminous meteors during the past 

 year, the Committee has very few particulars to report. The expected 

 passage of the earth, at the end of November last, through the cluster or 

 train of meteors circulating in the orbit of Biela's comet, proved to be 

 only a source of disappointment, as no marked abundance of Andromedes 

 during the last vreek of November 1880 v/as anywhere noticed by observers. 

 But a somewhat unusual display of the Leonids on the morning of No- 

 vember 14 was recorded in America, and the descriptions of the shower 

 were corroborated by observations of numerous bright Leonids at Mon- 

 calieri, near Turin, on the same meteoric date. The existence of a sen- 

 sible cluster in the stream following the principal one, about thirteen 

 years later in its encounter with the earth, and of another preceding the 

 main group at about the same interval, is shown by Professor Kirkwood 

 from past appearances of the November meteors to be pretty satisfactorily 

 established. 



A considerable display of the quadrantids of the lst-3rd of January 

 was also noted by Mr. Denning at Bristol on the morning of January 2, 

 1880, showing that periods of especial brightness of this shower, like those 

 of the other annual displays, are features of its appearance which would 

 certainly reward observers' close attention. 



Of the Geminids and Lyrids no notable returns were recorded during 

 tbe past year, and the extreme brightness of full-moon light prevented 

 tlie August Perseids from exhibiting any unusual appearance. At the 

 few places where a sufficiently clear sky enabled observers to be on the 

 watch for them, the annual meteor shower on August 10, 1881, seemed 

 to be, in point of frequency and brightness, of an exceptionally meagre 

 and inconspicuous description. 



Notices of occasional fire-balls and bright meteors have been re- 

 corded and published from time to time during the past year. But 

 these announcements not having been immediately followed up by timely 

 inquiries for similar accounts from other quarters, have furnished little 

 of very weighty impoi'tance to describe. A few real paths have been 

 deduced ; but of these and of the miscellaneous observations of shooting- 

 stars and fire-balls that have been collected during the past few years, 

 more leisure would be needed for reduction and description than passing 

 circumstances of the Committee's labours have allowed it to bestow upon 

 them. A careful review and attentive comparison of the materials, how- 

 ever, will yet, it may be hoped, enable the Committee to offer at a futui-e 

 time, by their arrangement and discussion, some astronomical deductions 

 and conclusions of more enduring interest and consequence than the 

 promiscuous chronicle of ephemeral phenomena which at present con- 

 stitutes the unassorted accumulation of the past few years meteor- 

 records. 



In an appendix of much value subjoined to this Report (Appendix I.), 

 Dr. Walter Flight relates the recent occurrences of stone-falls and disco- 



