153 REPORT— 1876. 



October, Novemher, and Decemher Star-Showers, 1875. — Of the annual 

 mcteor-sliowers in October and December no observations have been received. 

 The state of the sky was unfavourable for continued observations on the 

 periodic dates, and in the intervals of cloudless hours devoted at some sta- 

 tions to a watch, the preparations for recording the Orionids and Geminids 

 in 1S75 were unsuccessful, these showers being apparently absent on the 

 expected dates. At Stouyhurst Observatory a meteor-watch was kept on the 

 mornings of November 12th and 15th, and also at the Royal Observatory, 

 Greenwich, on the latter morning, with favourable conditions of the sky, but 

 in bright moonlight*. In 2| or 3 hours before daybreak on the first 

 morning eight meteors were mapped at Stonyhurst College, two or three of 

 which were Leonids, three Taurids, and the rest apparently sporadic. 

 Twenty-four meteors at Stonyhurst and twenty-six meteors at Greenwich 

 were mapped in 3| or 4 hours of generally clear sky on the morning of the 

 15th, of which ten or twelve meteors noted at each place were Leonids, and 

 the rest were either Taurids or were directed from less certainly determined 

 radiant-points. On the intervening mornings of the 13th and 14th the sky 

 was either whoUy or almost entirely overcast. 



The Geminids of December 11-13, 1875, were watched for in England 

 without success on account of cloudy skies ; and equally unfavourable con- 

 ditions prevented any satisfactory observations of the meteors of the lst-2nd 

 of January, 1876, from being made. But the night of January 1st proving 

 clear at Sunderland, Mr. Backhouse saw two meteors, unconformable, on that 

 evening-, in a few minutes' watch, and towards five o'clock on the morning of 

 the 2nd of January two others in 15 minutes, which were conformable to the 

 radiant-point of the annual shower. On the following morning also, at about 

 2*" A.M., Mr. Backhouse noted one meteor only in a watch of 23 minutes, 

 when the sky, which had been overcast before, cleared partiaUy, and it was 

 conformable to the radiant-point of the shower. 



The following notice of some shooting-stars seen by the expedition under 

 Captain Parry in the Arctic seas occurs in the narrative of his third voyage 

 (p. 64), relating the events of the winter at Port Bowen in the year 1824, 

 and it appears to indicate an appearance of the Geminids with considerable 

 brightness in December of that year ; but the description includes meteors 

 from other radiants as well as a particularly bright one directed exactly 

 from the radiant in Gemini of the annual shower. The changes of the 

 weather which accompanied these appearances being regarded by Captain 

 Parry as in some intimate manner connected with the apparition of the 

 meteors, are described in full detail ; but except to observe that the meteors 

 seen appear to have been as exceptionally remarkable as the sudden changes 

 of the weather with which they were presumed to be associated, the notable 

 features of the wind and weather which are stated in the original account to 

 have accompanied them need not here be reproduced at length, but only 

 the passages of the narrative may be transcribed in which the apparent paths 

 and appearances of the meteors seen Avere recorded with careful accuracy and 

 completeness. The particulars of a few meteors thus successfully preserved 

 will doubtless be held by navigators and explorers as offering them a use- 

 ful example for repeating wherever practicable, and malving known in 

 future to the best of their information, such highly valuable observations. 

 " The meteors called falling stars were much more frequent during this 

 winter than we ever before saw them, and particularly during the month 



1875 



' Monthly Notices of the Astronomical Society,' yol, xxxvi. pp. 83 and 272 (December 

 5 and March 18761. 



