164 report — 1877. 



distinction from later showers in the same vicinity, he has designated 

 " Taurids I." The immediately following shower-system, " Taurids II.," with 

 a radiant-point near (3, f Tauri (78°, + 25° Corder, and 80°, + 23° Denning, 

 from Nov. 22 to Dec. 14), he regards as distinct from a continuation (at 57°, 

 + 26°) of the e or rj and \p Tauri shower of November, which he observed in 

 sparing activity from November 28th to December 24th, and which he identi- 

 fies, under the title " Taurids III.," with the long-enduring shower AG t in Greg's 

 list, at 60°, + 20°, lasting from Dec. 21st(?) to Feb. 6th. The new shower near 

 /3, £ Tauri presented a very decided maximum, nearly half of all the meteors 

 seen in a watch of 3± hours proceeding from it, with a well-marked radiant- 

 point on the morning of December 6th, while few symptoms of this new 

 Taurid shower remained in activity after the morning of December 8th. 



Among other conspicuous new showers detected by Mr. Denning in No- 

 vember and December 1876 (some of the chief of which he noticed and de- 

 scribed in letters in ' Nature,' vol xv. pp. 158, 217) a very important one, 

 situated in Leo Minor, at 155°, + 36°, was remarkably fine and abundant 

 on the mornings of November 26th to 29th, furnishing (about equally in thoso 

 successive nights) nineteen meteors with a very exactly denned centre of di- 

 vergence. It appears not to have been quite unnoticed in the earlier radiant 

 lists of other observers on dates extending from November 7th to December 

 9th ; but the present date and position agree, much better than any previously 

 assigned to it, with the time and direction of the earth's nodal conjunction, 

 with a meteor-stream following the orbit of the comet 1798 II. at its de- 

 scending node (Dec. 2, 162°, +34°) ; and it may be added that the brightness 

 of the " Taurid I." shower on the morning of November 20th, at 62°, +22°, is 

 also in much better agreement as to date than any earlier observations had 

 been, with a pretty close appulse to the earth's orbit of the comet of 1702, 

 about the 27th of November, with a radiant-point at 56°, +20°. The Leo- 

 Minorids arc swift white meteors, leaving very bright, persistent streaks, and 

 presenting a great resemblance to the Leonids, with which, perhaps, some 

 bolides of its stream, visible before the hour when Leo rises on the east horizon, 

 may have been occasionally confused (see a note, ante, p. 162, of some meteors, 

 apparently of this shower, visible on the morning of November 15th, 1875). 



Several other cometary radiant-point positions were remarkably identified 

 with recorded star-shower centres during Mr. Denning's observations in 

 November and December, 1876, the principal of which may be here briefly 

 noticed. To make the list of observed meteor-showers presenting analogies 

 with cometary orbits, as indicated by Mr. Denning's recent observations, 

 complete, some examples of such coincidences in September and October and 

 in January and February, as well as the more frequent accordances which 

 were noted in November and December last, are included in the Table (p. 166). 

 The present list of twenty such compai'isons would be much increased if those 

 obtained during later months, when (the overcast state of the sky preventing 

 regular observations) Mr. Denning's investigations were chiefly confined to 

 a systematic examination of the long lists of meteor-tracks in printed and 

 MS. catalogues which the Committee has during the past few years received 

 from observers in Austria, Hungary, and Italy *, could be regarded as of the 



* The Catalogue of shooting stars observed by the Italian Luminous-Meteor Association 

 (see these Keports for 1872, p. 108) in 1872, containing about 7000 meteor-tracks, including 

 Perseids, was, a few years since, presented to tbe Committee, and a still larger catalogue of 

 about 12,000 shooting-star observations, made in later years by the same Association, has 

 quite recently been presented to Mr. Denning by Professor Scbiaparelli. Professor Weiss, 

 of the Imperial Observatory of Tienna, transmitted to the Committee, during the past 

 year and in 1874 (see these Reports for 1874, p. 344), two volumes of observations of 



