from. Mazdpil, Mexico. 47 



sesses, I would state tliat everything ])uints to the hclief that it 

 belongs to a fragment of the eomet of Biela-Gainbart, lost since 

 1852/ 



"I will first give the history of this celestial wanderer, and 

 then my reasons, as an astronomer, for believing that it belongs to 

 the comet of Biela. 



•' As Director of the Zacatecas Observatory, I am naturally at- 

 tentive to all celestial i)henomena ; and remembering that in 

 Nov., 1885, when onr planet should pass through the node of 

 the oi-bit of the disintegi-ated comet of Biela, there should hap- 

 pen the rain of fallng-stai-s, which occurs periodically from the 

 2Gth to the 29th, I requested my ])upi1s and vai'ious other peo- 

 l)le in different towns of the State of Zacatecas to note the fall 

 of stars on those dates — especi^dly on the evening of the 27th — 

 and endeaxor to count them, apprising me of their ob>ervations. 



"I, myself, in the observatory, prepared for observations 

 as follows : — Fijstly, to lo( ate with exactness the ])osition of 

 the ]"adial point of the falling star^ — determining theii' co-ordi- 

 nates of riglit ascension and declination ; — secondly, to obtain 

 instantaneous photogi'aphs of them by means of dry-plates ; — 

 thirdly, to study the meteors by means of the spectroscope ; — 

 fourthly, to count the number of falling stars and note the hour 

 of their maximum number in Zacatecas time ; — fifthly, to fix 

 among the constellations the paths of some of them, at least 

 those most noteworthy. 



^'The sun having set at 5.20 P. M. (local time), I eagerly 

 looked to the place in the heavens where the constellation Andro- 

 meda should be. Hai-dly liad twilight vanished, at 5.47, when 

 I could ali'eady distinguisi. the three principal stars of this group. 

 At 0.20, I noticed near Alpha of the ti'iangle the first falling 

 star, and little by little the number increased. At midnight — 

 two hours and a half after Gamma-Andromeda? had passed the 

 meridian— the phenomenon had attained its greatest intensity, 

 as I counted in thirty minutes two hnndred and forty meteors 

 shooting in all diiections and not at all from the same point. 



"With a six-inch equafoi-ial I took the position of the radial 

 ])oint, fi'om which most of the stars came, and its co-ordinates I 

 made out as follows : 



• Eight ascension Ih. 54m. Declination + 4li 



