388 



REPORT 1873. 



March 6th, 1873) in Jamaica, with ahout the same radiant-point on the 

 night of the 24th. The display of the 27th, Mr. Hall relates was simply a 

 repetition of a star-shower quite similar to it on the former date. 



The first announcement of the principal display on the night of the 27th of 

 November was received by Prof. Herschel at Newcastle-on-Tyne, by tele- 

 graph, from Messrs. Waller and S. P. Thomson at York, and Mr. Backhouse 

 at Sunderland at about 6 o'clock p.m., when it was also being watched at 

 most of the observatories and other points of observation in the north of 

 England and Scotland, whUe an impenetrable veil of cloud unfortunately 

 prevented all the observers, south of a line drawn from Wisbeach on the 

 Wash, through Birmingham, from obtaining a momentary view of it in the 

 south of England. The best series of observations were accordingly only 

 obtained at a few northern stations, where the sky continued cloudless 

 throughout the night ; and the rate of frequency of the meteors was thus 

 counted continuously until the end of the display by Mr. Lowe at Beeston, 

 near Nottingham, and by Prof. Grant at the observatory at Glasgow. During 



7 8 9 



Hour, P.M. (G. M. T.). 



10 



the latter part of the shower a continuous enumeration of the meteors was 

 also obtained by Lord Ptosse at his observatory at Birr Castle in Ireland. 

 The numbers counted by other observers in general only applied to very 

 limited portions of the shower. It was thus observed by Captain Brinkley 

 and his two sons, near Dublin, that bright meteors were already visible in 

 fuE daylight on the afternoon, and that about twenty-three per minute could 

 be counted by one observer as soon as dusk set in on the evening of the 27th, 

 at about 5^ 20" p.m. Counting alone, Mr. Lowe reckoned that an even 

 greater number per minute could be counted by one observer at that early 

 hour. The numbers, however, rose as the hour grew later ; and between 

 about half-past six and eight o'clock p.m. the shower continued to be visible at 

 its greatest brightness, declining gradually after this time until an observer 

 near Dublin, Mr. M. H. Close, looking out for more than a quarter of an 



