308 report — 1878. 



With a downward inclination of path from 22° above the horizon, 36° 

 E. from S., the radiant point of this detonating fireball (as there is good 

 ground to suppose it to have been, from the Galashiels account) was in 

 R.A. 214°, S. decl. 7°. In April and May, 1877, Mr. Denning and Mr. 

 Corcler noted a rich and well-defined shower of bright meteors (some 

 conspicuous ones of which were seen on May 15th) from an apparently 

 new radiant point, the various indications of which, traced also by Mr. 

 Denning's reductions from other sources, are presented in the following 

 list by Mr. Denning, who regards them as all pertaining to a single 

 shower : — 



April 1-12, 1872, 7 |s in the Italian a 8 



Catalogue pos. of rad. 



May 3-15, 1872, 9 J.s in the Italian 



Catalogue >, 



April-May, 1872-77, 23 4,s from various 



Catalogues >, 



April-May, 1877 ; observed by H. Corder „ 



May,1877,3 4,s „ W.F.Denning „ 



As far as exact conclusions drawn from rough and imperfectly re- 

 corded, but at the same time fairly corroborative, observations, like those 

 of the present fireball, can be depended upon, it seems a not improbable 

 assumption that the great fireball here described was a large and 

 brilliant member of this recently-detected, and apparently very conspi- 

 cuous and abundant meteor shower ; but the agreement is yet not so 

 exact, nor quite so directly and positively established by the observations, 

 as to make the possible connection of a detonating fireball with a shower 

 of ordinary shooting-stars, which it seems to indicate, a conclusion which 

 it will be unnecessary to confirm and verify hereafter (in future reappear- 

 ances of this meteor-stream, and of fireballs apparently conformable to it) 

 by further observations. It seems very probable that the meteor-shower 

 here newly recognised may be identical with one observed by Prof. 

 Forshey, in the United States, on April 18th, 1841, the chief features of 

 whose somewhat remarkable display, as described by E. C. Herrick in 

 the ' American Journal of Science,' vol. xlii. p. 395 (April-October, 1842) 

 were as follows : — The frequency of the meteors on the night of April 

 18th. 1841, first struck Prof. Forshey at about 8 o'clock p.m. During a 

 watch of about 2\ hours between 8 h 30 m and ll h 30 m p.m. he recorded 

 60 meteors, the tracks of all but five of which proceeded from a radiant 

 point between a and Virginis, a little nearer to the former star, at 

 198° — 8°, with a deviation of the backward prolongations of their 

 courses from this point, which seldom amounted to so much as 10°. The 

 radiant point is almost exactly on the ecliptic in longitude 196°. The 

 meteors seen in these unusual numbers differed entirely in appearance 

 from the August Perse'ids, being chiefly without trains, and of a reddish 

 colour. Few of them were of the first magnitude, the majority being of 

 the brightness of stars of the third and inferior magnitudes ; their velo- 

 cities were remarkably equal and gentle, their paths short, and their 

 light gradually increasing and then waning in its brightness. As the 

 radiant point of the shower is just opposite to the sun's place, and trans- 

 verse to the direction of the earth's motion, at the date of its appearance, 

 it would be of special interest to ascertain, if possible by observations, 

 the exact real velocity of the meteors of this shower, and thus to deter- 



