Miscellanies. 173 



Multiplying this number by ybz<r, and the resulting quantity by <«^>o, we 

 obtain for the entire number which might have been' seen at that place, 

 had the moon been absent, 440, or about nine times the average. It is 

 unnecessary here to reduce the other reports in this way, as any one who 

 chooses can do it for himself. 



The observations on the position of the radiant point of this shower 

 are not altogether satisfactory, and it will probably be advisable to wait 

 for the better opportunity of determining this point which the meteoric 

 shower of August 1839 will present, rather than to attempt to reconcile 

 the accounts which have been already made public. Enough is known 

 to prove that this radiant (as seen in this latitude) lies fifty degrees north 

 of the point towards which the earth is at the time tending. This fact 

 may perhaps intimate that the meteoric zone does not lie in the plane of 

 the ecliptic. 



Neither can we yet decide on what day between the 8th and 12th of 

 August the shower arrives at its maximum. The determination of this 

 and other important features of the phenomenon must be postponed to the 

 coming year. 



We are probably still unacquainted with all those periods of the year at 

 which shooting stars occur in unusual numbers. It cannot be concealed, 

 that on the night of the sixth of December, 1798, Brandes alone saw these 

 meteors at the rate of 100 an hour for four hours. This display must 

 have been nearly or quite equal to any August or November shower 

 which has been witnessed since 1833. It is a highly interesting question, 

 whether shooting stars do not now occur in unusual numbers on or about 

 this day of the year, and it is earnestly to be hoped that none of our ob- 

 servers will suffer this period of the present year to pass without the most 

 attentive inspection of the heavens. 



To the facts heretofore adduced in this Journal (Vol. xxxiii, p. 176 — 

 180 ; 354—364 ; 401, and Vol. xxxiv, p. 180—182) in proof of the oc- 

 currence of a meteoric shower in August, I add the following testimony, 

 which although not of the most satisfactory character, seems to merit 

 quotation. 



1. In Miss Harriet Martineau's Retrospect of Western Travel, (Amer. 

 ed. 2 vols. 12mo. N. Y. 1838,) Vol. 2, p. 87, is the annexed account, 

 pertaining to the evening of August 8, 1835 : — "While the bright glow 

 was still lingering in the valley, and the sky was beginning to melt from 

 crimvson to the pale seagreen of evening, I saw something sailing in the 

 air like a glistening golden balloon. * * * It burst in a broad flash and 

 shower of green fire. It was the most splendid meteor I ever saw. * * 

 I saw an unusual number of falling-stars before we reached home." 



2. In Capt. J. E. Alexander's Transatlantic Sketches, (Amer. ed. 8vo. 

 Philad. 1833,) p. 102, in an account of the tremendous hurricane which 



