374 The November Meteors. 



At (about) 11.51 two meteors shot from under Pollux and 

 vanished beyond Orion ; these had yellowish red trains. At 

 (about) 11.54 the train of one west of Capella lasted from two 

 to three seconds, and three minutes later the train of another 

 exhibited the aspect of a narrow shower of closely packed 

 sparks. At (about) 12.8 a meteor with a similar train, but 

 red, appeared below Capella. At (about) 12.13 one shot up 

 from below Mars towards Betelguese : the ball was orange and 

 the train bluish green. At 12.13 I looked at a meteor moving 

 towards Castor, through a Herschel-Browning spectroscope, 

 and it exhibited all the colours ; its train lasted about three 

 seconds. About 12 p.m. my wife joined me, and while I looked 

 from Leo to Orion, she watched a sky space from Orion to the 

 S. W. Towards one o' clock the meteors came thicker and 

 thicker, and from 1 to 1.30 it is scarcely an exaggeration to 

 say that all the heavens were a blaze with fiery balls and long- 

 streaming tails of coloured light. The long trains stretched 

 from 40, 50, to 60, 90°, and possibly greater lengths. In these 

 cases a large proportion of the whole length of the trains was 

 in a highly lustrous condition at the same moment of view. 

 The effect was that of a continuous stream of burning particles 

 left behind by the meteors in their course, and quite different 

 from any luminous appearance that might arise from mere com- 

 pression of the air in the fire-ball's flight. 



Looking towards Leo it seemed as if a celestial rocket battery 

 had been established in that constellation. A few meteors went 

 downwards from y Leonis, and many more upwards from the 

 same star ; but the majority had a more central radiant point. 

 Upwards they shot by dozens, scores, and hundreds ; now pelting- 

 past Procyon and through Orion, now bombarding Castor, then 

 up to the zenith and down again : then through the Great 

 Bear, under and over the pointers. Occasionally a little to the 

 south of 7 Leonis, meteors burst, and disappeared immediately, 

 showing no trains. Probably their tails were behind them, and 

 invisible from the foreshortening of perspective. At the same 

 time the meteoric shower went on in descending* curves west of 

 the zenith point, and by 2.15 we had counted 1,400, excluding 

 at least a hundred more seen before they came thick and strong, 

 and our attempts to number them began. 



At 1.22 my wife saw one perform a zigzag below Orion. 

 The ups and downs of the \y\/ it made, were shorter than is 

 usual with forked lightning. 



In addition to the long tailed meteors, we saw many with 

 short fan tails. None of these reached any great height above 

 the horizon, perhaps not more than 45°, and their tails exhibited 

 glowing rainbow tints. These came from Leo. My wife saw 

 some with light blue trains, and some with purple. 



