346 



REPORT — 1878. 



on the history and distribution of meteoric matter in planetary and 

 terrestrial rocks, and in the sea and atmosphere, for which it has been 

 indebted during tbe past year to the authors, Dr. von Tschermak, Mons. 

 Daubree, Messrs. S. Meunier and G. Tissandier, and Mr. John Murray, 

 of Edinburgh, the Committee is also obliged by the length of this Re- 

 port, while recording the value of their contributions to the subjects of 

 which they treat, to omit a short review until a more favourable oppor- 

 tunity 'permits it to give full and appropriate descriptions of them in 

 another year.* 



Positions and Durations of meteor-showers in the early part of November, 



by L. Gruber, 1877. 



No. of 



Shower 



(I-) 



n. 



iii. 

 rv. 

 v. 



VI. 



VII. 



VIII. 



IX. 



X. 



XI. 

 XII. 



Position of 

 Radiant 



148 + 19 

 140-5 + 21 

 149-5 + 12 

 57 + 30-5 

 55 + 19 

 111 + 59-5 

 62 + 53 

 70 + 19-5 

 103 + 3 

 135 + 52 

 100 + 41 

 125 + 5 

 10 + 39 



316 + 71 



53-14 

 40-25 



Per cent. No. of meteors, or importance of 



the shower 



Leonids, 26 p. c. of all. 



Nov. 12, 1871. A double radiant-point 



of the Leonids observed by L. Gruber. 

 Tarn-ids, 22 p. c. „ 



Do. 52 ,J,s, Tupman. 

 About 10 p. c. of all. 



Remaining radiants about 33 p. c. of all. 



/No radiant, Tachini 356° + 87°-. 

 L near the North Pole. 



> A position included on this line. 



found 



III. Account op Aerolites. Bt Dr. Flight. 

 Found 1858-9. — Staunton, Augusta Co., Virginia.^ 



In 1871 Mallet described three masses of meteoric iron which had 

 been found near Staunton ; another has now been brought to light, and 

 examined. It was found by a negro in 1858 or 1859, who brought it to 



* With the exception of the notes on meteor-magnitudes and colours ('The 

 Observatory,' vol. i., p. 399, and ii., pp. 20, 23, 97), and of the discovery of spherules 

 of magnetic oxide of iron in various ancient sandstones, and in different specimens 

 of sea mud, by Messrs. 8. Meunier and G. Tissandier, in vol. lxxx. of the • Comptes 

 Eendus,' a short account of all the above recent papers on meteoritic subjects is 

 given (in the ' Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society,' vol. xxxviii., p. 

 219-221) in a sketch of the 'progress of meteoric astronomy during the year 1877,' 

 communicated in the Council's Annual Report for the past year, in February last, 

 1878, to the Royal Astronomical Society. A Paper by Professor D. Kirkwood, read 

 before the American Philosophical Society, on March 1st, 1878, should also be 

 noticed here (see ' The Observatory,' vol. ii., p. 118), showing the probable inde- 

 pendence of the stonefall occurrences of the 13-14th of November, and the system 

 of Leonid meteor-showers of the same well-known meteoric date. 



t J. W. Mallet. Amer. Jour. Science, 1878, xv. 337. 



