364 Star-Showers of Former Times. 



North America. The meteors appeared to diverge from the vicin- 

 ity of Y Leonis, and were most abundant about 4 A. M. Sky 

 clear and moon in the second day past the change. — This Jour. 

 Vols. 25, 26, &c. 



Recapitulation : dates reduced to Gregorian style. 



The limits prescribed to this paper will permit only a very brief 

 discussion of the preceding catalogue. The region of country 

 included by these showers, down to that of A. D. 1799, extends 

 from England to China, about 130° in longitude, and from about 

 20° to 51° N. latitude. The table above shows the dates (when- 

 ever they could be found,) reduced to the Gregorian calendar, 

 which, thus stated, will indicate with sufficient accuracy the point 

 of the earth's orbit, in each instance intersected by the meteoric 

 stream. It is reasonable to presume that some of the dates are 

 erroneous, and that some of the cases were not actually meteoric 

 showers. Much caution is therefore necessary in tracing the cor- 

 respondence of dates between these ancient star-showers and 

 those of the present age, especially as our knowledge is so im- 

 perfect regarding the meteoric seasons which now exist. The 

 shower of April 20, 1803, may be the lineal successor of those of 

 April 10, 1095 and 1122. That of August 2, 1243, may be the 

 ancestor of the meteoric sprinklings of August 10, seen at the 

 present day. It does not appear certain which of these ancient 

 showers is represented by the modern shower of November 13. 

 There is some reason to suppose that those showers which are 

 described as continuing all night, (e. g. Nos, 4, 5, 9,} may have 

 occurred in the summer season. 



Previous to 1833, we have no precise observations on the posi- 

 tion of the point of radiation during any meteoric shower, but 



