20 KANSAS CITY REVIEW OF SCIENCE. 



being nearly round, and 35,000 miles in diameter — near 1-24 of the diameter of 

 the solar disk. The next spot seen without telescope was on May 15, 1870. On 

 the 1 8th, two were visible, one of which the telescope showed to be composed of 

 two separate spots. They were much smaller than the one seen a month ago. 

 On June 6th, two spots were visible to the naked eye; another on the 27th, 

 others on July 17th and 31st; one on August 18th; September 21st three spots 

 were visible without the aid of a telescope; one of these was nearly 30,000 miles 

 long and 12,000 wide. This spot had a very singular shape, which I have pre- 

 served in a smjll drawing. Two other spots were seen by the naked eye this 

 year (1870), namely, October 23d and December 4th. In 1871, about twenty 

 sun-spots were visible to the naked eye — sometimes three at once, on different 

 parts of the solar disk. In 1872, but few were so observed — none after 1874. 

 From a number of observations, I conclude that, to be seen with the naked 

 eye, a sun-spot must be about 8,000 miles across. The large spots not only 

 change in form and size, but sometimes divide into smaller ones. 



A number of drawings were made from 1867 to 1871, showing the outline 

 appearance of the groups and spots over the face of the sun. Occasionally a 

 large spot is seen without any other one near it, but to see a little spot alone, is 

 quite uncommon, there being nearly always three or more in a group. 



The spots are nearly always found in the equatorial regions of the sun, being 

 seldom or never seen more than half-way from the equator toward either pole. 



I have not, in my observations, discovered anything bearing on the cause 

 of sun-spots. Indeed, this is a subject not yet known to astronomers. The 

 object of this paper being simply to give results of my own observations, the 

 various theories which have been proposed, are left for another occasion, and 

 perhaps a more competent writer. 



ON SOME RECENTLY DETERMINED METEOR SHOWERS. 



W. F. DENNING, F. R. A. S. 



The following meteor showers comprise a few of the most important systems 

 observed or deduced from the catalogues of foreign astronomers, by the writer, 

 during the last three years. The number of meteors conforming to each center 

 is given, and in some cases I have pointed out more than one epoch of intensity 

 of the same radiant, (though not necessarily of the same shower). The aggre- 

 gate number of meteors that I noted during habitual watches was 4513, (in 429 

 hours,) and 3213 of these were projected (as observed) on a globe of 18-in. diam- 

 eter, the radiants derived, and the R. A.'s and Dec's of the paths read off and 

 catalogued. In cloudy weather, and during periods of moonlight, I projected 

 many of the meteor paths registered in the extensive lists of Heis, Weiss, Zezioli, 

 Konkoly, and the Catalogue of the Italian Meteoric Association (1872). The 

 number of paths thus examined and aligned was about 11,400. The star charts 



