326 report— 1878. 



substance. Perhaps the extraordinary succession of stationary meteors 

 seen by Mr. Graham may admit of some such intelligible explanation. 



During evening watches on October 2-4 many fine meteors were again 

 observed, Mr. Denning counting 127, and noting numbers of their paths, 

 in intervals extending together over 13| hours.* Two of the brightest 

 were small bolides, about as brilliant as Venus and Jupiter, which, together 

 with several others diverged on the night of October 22nd, from a radiant- 

 point in the head of Bootes, at 225° + 52°. The brightest one of the 

 shower left a nebulous light streak at its place of explosion and disappear- 

 ance visible for 3-^ minutes, and drifting some 5° from its first position 

 before it disappeared. On the following night another Venus-like meteor 

 leaving a light streak for 15 seconds shot from the direction of a radiant- 

 point of less marked activity (D. 92, 1878, at 167° + 75°) midway 

 between the ' Pointers ' and Polaris. The next conspicuous radiant- 

 point observed was that of many pretty bright meteors on those two 

 nights, and on October 4th, from the direction of an exceedingly well- 

 defined centre in the head of Camelopardus, at 133° + 79°. The shower 

 remained visible on some following nights, and was an extremely dis- 

 tinct and certain shower on the first nights of its maximum display. It 

 agrees in date and position so very closely with the radiant-point of a 

 stream moving in the same orbit with the comet 1825 II., ?3 (at 

 133° + 77°, October 7th), that although this orbit passed just transversely 

 to the plane of the ecliptic, about ten millions of miles inside the earth's 

 orbit, at the shower date, yet the certainty and exactness of the meteor 

 shower leave scarcely a reasonable doubt of the meteor- shower's connec- 

 tion with the comet. The agreement is supported by meteor-showers of 

 Heis (Ni 6 - 18 ) close to the cometary radiant-point in September and 

 October ; and if the apparent identity can be re-established and con- 

 firmed by new precise determinations, it will afford a very convincing 

 argument that the materials of comet's tails may give rise to meteor- 

 showers, or that at least the orbit of a meteor-shower, shown to agree in 

 every other element with a non-periodic comet's orbit, may yet differ 

 very largely from the comet's orbit in its perihelion distance. Another 

 radiant-point near Polaris was active on the same nights, but lying on the 

 opposite of the north pole, in Cepheus ; and in this position a nearly con- 

 tinuous shower appeared to be situated from July to October. 



A long watch for shooting-stars was kept by Mr. Denning on the 

 night of October 8th, 105 meteors being seen, and 95 of their tracks re- 

 corded in ten hours, the sky throughout being brilliantly clear. The 

 numbers seen in the four hours preceding 11 o'clock were three, six, nine, 

 seventeen ; the numbers seen between 10 h and ll h being the greatest num- 

 ber recorded in one hour during the night. A note received soon after- 

 wards from Mr. T. W. Webb informed Mr. Denning of a reported 

 appearance at Hay, S. "Wales, of many falling stars between 10 h 15 m 

 and 10 h 45 m p.m. on the night of October 8th, as an occurrence which 

 had attracted some attention. The meteor frequency was quite con- 

 firmed by Mr. Denning's observations ; but it is yet remarkable that it 

 did not proceed from an outburst of any individual or special meteor- 

 shower, as the meteors came from many radiant-points, none of which, 

 during the time indicated, showed an exceptionally great activity. 



* For particulars of these nights' observations the Committee is indebted to 

 long and full description in a Bristol newspaper, communicated by Mr. Denning. 



