OBSERVATIONS OF LUMINOUS METEORS. 337 



respondence enabled him to receive and to publish many accounts in 

 the well-known astronomical journal begun and conducted by himself 

 for a long course of years, the ' Wochenschrift fiir Astronomie,' and fre- 

 quent references to this weekly journal occur in the meteor catalogue of 

 the work. The narrative portion, forming the remainder of the volume, 

 contains the results of calculations and reductions from the catalogue, 

 lists of stationary meteors, of meteors with serpentine paths, and of dates 

 of unusual frequency and scarcity of shooting-stars. The introduction 

 of this part also discusses and explains the practical mode of observing 

 and the methods of calculation used, by which, with very little change 

 since their first adoption in the year 1833, the whole of the important 

 results of the author's forty-three years' observations of meteors presented 

 in the volume were obtained. Among the many meteors simultaneously 

 recorded at two or more stations, the heights at first appearance of 246, 

 and at disappearance of 273, are calculated ; and the following table, 

 translated into British statute miles from the corresponding table of the 

 work, exhibits the numbei's of these heights respectively which fall in 

 the successive nine-mile intervals (nearly) of height above the earth's 

 surface extending to 



Height above "j 



the earth 1 18 27 37 46 55 64 74 83 92 101 110 119 129 138 147 L56 

 (miles). J 

 Number of *] 



initial I 3 12 19 26 35 38 23 24 19 16 7 4 6 5 1 



heights. J 



enTheTghts. } ^ 21 44 55 64 31 23 15 4 4 2 4 1 1 



The most frequent height of commencement is between sixty-five 

 and seventy miles, and the most frequent height of disappearance of 

 the meteors appears by this table to be about forty-five miles above the 

 earth's surface. 



A useful table might be constructed from the nights of the year on 

 which shooting-stars were noted as unusually abundant, to guide ob- 

 servers in watching for their extraordinary displays, but the extent and 

 fulness of this record in the original work forbids a partial summary 

 to be presented here of its contents, until they can be more thoroughly 

 examined and arranged to serve conveniently and usefully for such a 

 purpose. At the end of this appendix a careful analysis is given by Mr. 

 Greg of the new and greatly enlarged list of Heis' radiant-points, ob- 

 tained by the author's special method of reduction from the meteor-paths 

 described in the catalogue, with which the work concludes. A very large 

 increase of their number above that of the last earlier list (of eightv- 

 four showers; see the volume of these reports for 1873, p. 403) pub- 

 lished by the late Professor Heis, has principally been made in the last 

 half of the year ; and the co-ordinates of position of a few of the old 

 showers (which retain their appellations, while numerals and special 

 symbols denote the new ones) have at the same time been changed and 

 rectified by the discussions of the newer observations. The Committee 

 avails itself of this opportunity to present, with the analysis of the 

 new radiant-list of Heis, that published in 1871, in the German trans- 

 lation of his work on shooting-stars, by Professor Schiaparelli, the meteor- 

 showers of which are frequently quoted, and identified with certain meteor- 

 tracks, in Heis' final reductions. Of this list (with the exception of an 



1878. z 



