OBSERVAXrONS OF LUMINOUS METEORS. 153 



of December [1824]. On the 8th, at 71" r.Ji., a large auci pretty brilliant 

 meteor of this kind fell in the S.S.W. On the following day, between 

 4'' and 5'' p.m., another, very brilliant, was observed in the N., falling from 

 {in altitude of about 35° till lost behind the land. On the 12th no less 



than 5 meteors of this kind were observed in a quarter of an hour ; 



the account furnished me by Mr. Eoss, who with Mr. Bell observed the 



phenomena [ was] as follows: — At 11" 15™ my attention was 



directed by Mr. Bell to some meteors which he had observed, and in less 

 than a quarter of an hour five were seen. The two first, noticed only by 

 Mr. Bell, fell in quick succession, probably not more than two minutes apart ; 

 the third appeared about eight minutes after these, and exceeded in bril- 

 liancy any of the surrounding stars. It took a direction from near ft Tauri,^ 

 and passing slowly towards the Pleiades left behind it sparks like the tail of 

 a rocket, these being visible for a few seconds after the meteor appeared to 

 burst, which it did close to the Pleiades [the direction of this meteor is 

 exactly from the radiant-point r Geminorum, close behind it, of the Geminids 

 of December 12th]. The fourth meteor made its appearance very near the 

 same place as the last, and about 5"° after it. Taking the course of those seen 

 by Mr. Bell, it passed to the eastward, and disappeared halfway between 

 ft Tauri and Gemini. The fifth of these meteors was seen to the eastward, 

 passing through a space of about 5° from north to south, parallel to the 

 horizon, and moving along the upper part of the cloud haze which still 

 extended to the altitude of 5° or 6°. It was more dim than the rest, and of 

 a red colour like Aldebaran. The third of these meteors was the only one 

 that left a tail behind it as above described. There was a faint appearance 

 of aurora to the westward, near the horizon." [With the exception of the 

 third of these five meteors, the radiants from which they were directed arc 

 undetermined, and appear to have had no connexion with that of the annual 

 meteor-shower in Gemini.] 



The April Meteors in 1876. — No intimations of the appearance of the 

 Lyraids on the nights of April 18th-20th, 1876, have reached the Committee, 

 probably owing to the very unfavourable weather for observation which pre- 

 vailed. This year being a leap-year, the occurrence of the shower might be 

 expected to be a day earlier than on ordinary years (April 19th-20th) ; and 

 the following letter in ' Nature ' (vol. xiv. p. 26) from Professor Kirkwood, 

 of Bloomington, Ind., probably describes a considerable apparition of these 

 meteors in the United States on the expected meteoric date. 



"Between 10 and 12 o'clock on the night of April 18th, Mr. W. L. 

 Taylor, a member of the Junior Class in the State University, with several 

 other gentlemen, observed an unusual number of shooting-stars. These 

 gentlemen were returning in an open waggon from EUetsville, eight miles 

 north of Bloomington. No count was kept of the number of meteors observed, 

 but the appearance was so frequent as to attract the attention of all the com- 

 pany. Mr. Taylor thinks the number noticed cannot have been less than 

 twelve or fifteen. Prom the descriptions given of the meteor-tracks, I find 

 that they were nearly conformable to the radiant of the Lyraids. The 

 meteors were remarkably brilliant, apparently equal to stars of the first or 

 second magnitude. At my request, Mr. Benjamin Vail, a student of the Uni- 

 versity, made observations on the nights of the 19th and 20th of April. 

 Both nights were so cloudy, however, that a continuous watch would have 

 been useless. About 11 o'clock on the night of the 19th three meteors 

 were seen in the north-west, where the sky at the time was partially clear." 

 The Awjust Meteors in 1876. — A large list of observations of the Perseids, 



