OBSERVATIONS OF LUMINOUS METEORS. 385 



the sea apparently motionless, and at a quarter past five he perceived it again 

 in another j)lace. A shepherd near Subiaco narrowly escaped being struck 

 by a fragment of the meteor, which proved to be aerolitic. Father Secchi 

 regards the occurrence of this meteor as one of the most interesting appear- 

 ances of the kind on record. [Several other stones fell, weighing from less 

 than an ounce to one or two pounds, and the largest were found near Orvinio, 

 about thirty miles E.N.E. from Eome. Smaller pieces were picked up at La 

 Scarpa and Gerano, eight and fifteen miles south of the former place. See 

 PoggendorfF's 'Annals,' vol. cl. p. 171; November 1873.] 



III. Meteoeic SnoAVEKS. 



Italian Observations. — 1838, June 23rd. — The No. for June 1869 of the 

 ' Bullettino Meteorologico ' of Urbino contains the following citation by Prof. 

 Serpieri of a passage of the scientific works of Count Joseph Mamiani 

 (Florence, 1845), where he describes, in six letters to Arago, the meteoro- 

 logy of Pesaro. " A few minutes before the occurrence (about 9 p.m.) of a 

 very violent earthquake in that part of Italy on the 23rd of June, 1838, 

 many shooting or falHng stars were seen coming from the east ; and they 

 disappeared, gliding with their accustomed swiftness towards the south. 

 They were pretty bright, of large volume, and appeared in such unusual 

 numbers that people in Pesaro asked each other if fireworks were being dis- 

 charged in some part of the town." Additional observations of this shower, 

 or of its returns, if they can be traced, will be of great interest and im- 

 portance. 



1871, August 9-llth. — As seen at most of the Italian stations, it was 

 observed that the frequency of the meteors in this annual return of the 

 August shower was nearly equally great on the nights of the 10th and 11th, 

 and the time of the maximum abundance was variously estimated as having 

 been shortly before, or at some time after, sunrise on the morning of the 

 11th of August. Thus, at Cosenza Signer Bassani (assisted on the first night 

 by Signer Scrivani) counted the following numbers of meteors in the half 

 houi's ending at 



-"o 



9i^ P.M. gii- lO lOii' IP ll^'> 121- 12|h 131' 13^, i4h i4ih i5h i5ih leh Total. 

 Meteors seen 1 



August 10th 1 18 33 34 28 49 58 43 58 59 57 57 32 44 46 58 674 . 

 (2 observers) J 



August nth In 10 15 15 23 11 25 23 24 24 18 22 16 243 



(1 observer) J 



If the numbers seen in the first night are halved (having been reckoned by 

 two observers), it wiU be seen that they were scarcely less abundant on the 

 second than on the fii'st night of the shower. The numbers seen at other 

 places on the night of the 9th of August were much less than those counted 

 on the nights of the 10th and 11th. A large number of the meteors seen 

 were very bright, many descriptions of considerable fireballs occurring in the 

 long accounts of this August star-shower collected in Padre Denza's ' Bul- 

 lettino Meteorologico ' of the Moncalieri Observatory for August to November, 

 1871, from which these notes of the star-shower are extracted. From the 

 above list of observed hourly numbers. Signer Bassani concludes that the 

 hour of maximum abundance of the meteors at Cosenza was during daytime, 

 at about lO* 34'" a.m. (local time) on the forenoon of the 11th. Padre Secchi 

 at Eome and Prof. Galli at Yelletri also consider it to have taken place 

 1873. 2 c 



