396 On Meteoric Showers in August. 
The following statements are from the remarks prefixed to the 
queries. 
* Under the head of ‘ Atmospheric Phenomena’ [in the Annals of Philosophy] 
the Doctor [William Burney, of Gosport] has of late years recorded the number 
of his observations on small Meteors or Shooting Stars: these, in the year 1820, 
were in January 7, Feb. 2, Mch. 1, Ap. 2, May 2, June 1, July 15, Aug. 80, Sept. 
10, Oct. 4, Nov. 2, and Dec. 5; making 131 in this year: in 1819 the aaune num- 
ber of each observations was 121. 
“ The singular fact, of the month of August having furnished so very dispro- 
portioned a number of these observations, is accompanied by the mention, that 35 
of these were observed in one howr, which preceded midnight on the 9th of August 
last;—they shot in different directions, and three of them whose visible patlis lay 
between the constellations Ly7a and Ursa Major were caudated or appeared with 
tails; and the Doctor adds ‘ their sparkling trains having been left brilliantly illu- 
minated, for several seconds of time subsequent to the disappearance of the igni- 
ted bodies: this indeed was the grandest display of meteors we ever remember to 
have seen in so short a period, arising from the very gaseous or inflammable state 
of the air.’” 
The two latter instances (1826 and 1820) may by some be deem- 
ed not at all uncommon; but it must not be forgotten that all the 
records of meteors seen at Gosport are most wonderfully diminu- 
tive. It is perfectly certain that these displays far surpassed any 
appearance of the kind, observed in those two years. During the 
entire year 1820, 131 meteors only were registered at that place ; 
in 1819, 121; in 1824, 100; and in 1825, 159. In each of these 
years, August is the most fertile month. It is not easy to imagine 
how so few only could have been seen by a person who took any 
notice of them whatever. 
(5.) An unusually large number of brilliant meteors or shooting 
stars was seen in different parts of this country on the night of 
August 10,1834. ‘The quotation below given in evidence is taken 
from the meteorological record of Dr. Henry Gibbons, whose wri- 
tings evince him to be an attentive and faithful observer. The ob- 
servations were made at Wilmington, Delaware (N. lat. 39° 41’, 
W. long. 75° 28’) and published in “The Advocate of Science 
and Annals of Natural History.” Svo. Philadelphia, Vol. I, 1834, 
p- 179. 
“On the evening of the 10th of this month (August), and until it became cloudy 
next morning at 4 o’clock, an unusual number of brilliant meteors were visible. 
Their course at first was from north to south, and afterwards from east to west. 
Two or three were sometimes observed in a minute. On the night of the 11th 
they were again visible. I find by an account in some of the newspapers, that the 
same phenomenon was observed at Cincinnati, Ohio, on the same nights.” 
