THE 

 LONDON, EDINBURGH, and DUBLIN 



PHILOSOPHICAL MAGAZINE 



AND 



JOURNAL OF SCIENCE. 



♦ 



[FOURTH SERIES.] 



FEBRUARY 1867. 



XII. On the Meteoric Shower of the 14th of November, 1866. 

 By George Forbes, Esq.* 



[With a Plate.] 



IN attempting to investigate the causes of any phenomenon 

 in nature, the first object to be aimed at is the accumula- 

 tion of facts. This is more especially the case in a science, such as 

 Meteoric Astronomy, which is still in its infancy. Hence it is that 

 observations like those to be detailed in this paper, of however 

 slight importance they may be when considered by themselves, 

 yet when placed side by side with observations of a like nature, 

 by other observers in other places, may help in arriving at the 

 true theory of the nature and motions of those interesting ob- 

 jects called meteors or shooting-stars. 



It may be mentioned that the night on which the late meteoric 

 shower took place was much clearer and less stormy in St. An- 

 drews than in many other places in Great Britain. It may also 

 be well to state that the whole of my observations were noted 

 down before I read any account of the meteors in the newspapers 

 or elsewhere. 



In the first place, I shall proceed to give the results of the 

 observations made by me at St. Andrews on the numbers, direc- 

 tion of flight, and general characteristics of the shooting-stars; 

 and also of observations on particular meteors. I shall then 

 proceed to compare my observations with those which have been 



* Communicated by the Author, having been read before the Philoso 

 phical Society of St. Andrews on the 15th of December, 1866. 



Phil. Mag. S. 4. Vol. 33. No. 221. Feb. 1867. G 



