304 Miscellanies. 



ing stars, — not including numbers which must have been overlooked, 

 because the observers werenot sufficiently numerous. Sometimes the 

 stars succeeded each other so rapidly that nothing but the time could 

 be noted. The courses therefore of only 977 were marked upon the 

 star-maps, with all their circumstances. The following result is as 

 near the truth as possible. Five meteors appeared as bright as Venus ; 

 14 as Jupiter ; 238 as stars of the first magnitude ; 354 of the second, 

 and 257 of the third magnitude : 101 were reckoned smaller still, and 

 the magnitudes of eight were lost in the hurry. Two hundred and 

 seventy three left luminous trains. * * Three observers watched 

 on the night of the 11th, and saw 323 shooting stars, while the sky 

 was partly covered. On the night of the 12th, one observer counted 

 103 meteors, between 10 P. M. and Ih. 45m. A. M. of the 13th. 

 " Therefore, the annual periodical return of an uncommon fall of 

 stars towards the 10th of August, is once more confirmed, as well as 

 that the passage of this host of meteors near the earth, lasts several 

 days." 



It thus appears that on the night of August 10th, 1839, meteors 

 were seen as abundantly at Breslau as at New Haven. (This Jour. 

 Vol. XXXVII, p. 325.) The place of apparent radiation will doubtless 

 be well determined from the ample materials obtained by the Prus- 

 sian observers. 



No returns from the southern hemisphere have yet been received. 



E. C. Herrick. 



5. British Antarctic Expedition. — The British Antarctic Explo- 

 ring Expedition, under command of Capt. J. C. Ross, sailed from Eng- 

 land in September, 1839. It consists of the Terror, of 340 tons, and 

 the Erehus, of 370 tons, six guns each. They were built expressly 

 for this purpose, and are finished and furnished in the most complete 

 style at the expense of the Admiralty, under the superintendence of a 

 committee of the Royal Society. The ships are in three compart- 

 ments below, for greater safety. They are supplied with eight boats, 

 two sets of all needed instruments, double decks, spare rudders, &c., 

 together with abundance of pemmican, and fresh provisions for three 

 years. The expedition is to establish magnetic observatories at St. 

 Helena, the Cape of Good Hope, and Van Dieman's Land ; thence 

 to make for the Antarctic pole as far as possible. The highest lati- 

 tude yet reached is 73° S., by Capt. Weddell in 1823. 



6. Compound Electro-Magnet. — Messrs. Editors, — As the subject 

 of electro-magnetism is now occupying much of the attention of the 

 scientific world, and many experiments made to procure a motiv6 



