158 report — 1877. 



they combine to show that the hourly numbers of the Perse'i'ds, especially as 

 compared with the unconformable meteors visible at the same time, was below 

 the average of what is ordinarily observed. Mr. Backhouse states that, making 

 all allowances for haze and moonlight, the display was by no means equal to 

 that of August 1875 ; and Mr. Wood, who has watched the appearance of the 

 shower annually for fifteen years, regarded it as decidedly the most meagre 

 and insignificant of all its exhibitions that he has witnessed in that time. 

 In the above analysis of the observations, the shooting-stars counted as 

 " Perse'i'ds" include meteors from several centres, apparently subordinate to 

 the main stream, but associated with it, of which Mr. Clark gives the follow- 

 ing positions, rj, ^, and n Persei, and t and y Cassiopeise ; the last of these 

 points he regarded as distinctly marked at 10°, +59°-5 on the 10th, and 

 somewhat more diffusely near the same place on the 14th. 



An abstract of the radiant-centres, which he obtained from 88 meteor-tracks, 

 recorded between July 16th and 25th at Bristol (chiefly in the two hours 

 preceding midnight), is recorded by Mr. Denning in the ' English Mechanic ' 

 of Aug. 4th, 1876, (vol. xxiii. p. 536) in which this radiant in Cassiopeia 

 was shown to be very active towards the end of July*. Fifty-five of the 

 meteor-tracks observed diverged from the following radiant-points. The 

 Cassiopeiads were a marked shower of often very fine meteors, with long 

 courses and trains. 



« /"Schmidt, 6° +59°, 



/"i^o.iwr. ■ • io . J July 20-20. 



( 18° +63°, Cassiopeia 19 meteors, -( „ J 10 , , »qo 



«a , r* -n • very good. \ ^i y7toAug .'4 



284 + 57 o Dracoms 14 meteors, ■ J 6 



good. 



July 16-25 330+70 /3 Cephei 12 meteors, 



1876, Bristol . good. 



(from 83 meteor- ] 298 4- 2 9 Antino'i 10 meteors, 



tracks recorded) good. / Schmidt , 342 ° _ 9 °. 



348 + 22 /•) Pegas. 5 meteors, 2Q 



.... „ . . fa ! rlv f ocL jNeumayer,:337 o -10°, 



33< -- i Aquarius 4 meteors, -{ A > 



{ fairly good, j Tnpm B an 3 40° - 10°, 



( July 27-28. 



Mr. Greg's average position of this last shower is now at 328°, — 12°. 



Again, in the following month to August 25th, continuing his observations 

 until (exclusive of Perse'i'ds) 60 more meteor-tracks were reduced to well- 

 centred radiant-points, 9 more of these tracks were assigned by Mr. Denning 

 to the meteor-shower in Cassiopeia, 7 more were assigned to o Draconis, 6 

 more to ft Cephei, and two new meteor-tracks to the radiant-point uear H 

 Antino'i. Only the shower at d Aquarii was not prolonged ; but from ft 

 Pegasi, a and ft Andromeda?, Honores or Lacerta, a Lyra?, a Cygni, and I 

 Ursa Majoris some accurately diverging tracks afforded fairly exact positions 

 of August meteor-showers. Clouds prevented observations between July 26th 

 and Aug. 4th, and meteors were remarkably scarce on July 20th and 25th, and 

 (as regards the Perse'i'ds) also between 10 h and ll h p.m. on Angnst 11th, when 

 the Cassiopeia shower prevailed, which it did also (with Cephei'ds) very abun- 

 dantly on July 24th. The latter shower was most marked on July 19th, and 

 it was pretty plentiful, accompanied by radiants in Draco and Honores or 



* The principal radiant between August 5th and 11th, Mr. Denning found, from 37 

 Persei'd tracks selected for their accuracy, to be at 43°, +59°, with very little indication 

 of subradiants, unless one of a few meteors from 50°, +59°, (B Camelopardi), and 

 another of less frequent tracks from ^ Persei, may have been separately active. 



