The November Shooting Stars. 449 



THE NOVEMBER SHOOTING STARS. 



BY THE HON. MRS. "WARD. 

 (With a Woodcut Illustration.) 



True to astronomical prediction, the great November shower 

 of meteors arrived on the night of November 13th, and con- 

 tinned to stream in radiant succession during the early hours 

 of the 14th. Those observers who for years have devoted 

 close attention to luminous meteors, hailed this opportunity 

 for ascertaining fresh facts with regard to their distance, 

 velocity, and physical properties, and for becoming acquainted 

 even with their chemical nature, by the wondrous process of 

 spectrum analysis.* 



Some of the results of such observations will probably be 

 laid before the readers of this periodical. My remarks in this 

 paper are intended merely to afford answers to such questions 

 as are likely to be asked by intelligent observers, to whom the 

 whole subject of meteors is new, but who have felt interested 

 by the beautiful display on the morning of the 14th of Novem- 

 ber; and, secondly, I wish to describe the scene for the 

 benefit of those who, with considerable vexation, are con- 

 strained to own that they forgot to look out, and have missed 

 the sight altogether. 



For my own part, I narrowly escaped a similar fate. I 

 knew the ordinary November meteors only by hearsay, having 

 watched for them vainly, on the nights of the 12th and 13th 

 in two or three former years ; and my attention had not been 

 much attracted by the notices given in the Intellectual 

 Observer, and elsewhere, of the probability that the flight of 

 meteors this November was likely to be of imposing appear- 

 ance. 



But now — the morning of the 14th has passed — I have 

 seen the November shooting stars in all their beauty and 

 grandeur, a phenomenon unequalled since 1833, and my 

 thoughts turn to the hundreds of observers who probably saw 

 them also, and who inquire with newly-awakened curiosity, 

 What are they? Whence do they come? What possible rea- 

 son can be given for their appearance on a fixed day in our 

 calendar ? And what grounds were there for supposing that a 

 more splendid display than usual would be seen in 1866 ? 



What are they ? And whence do they come ? — These are 

 questions difficult to answer ; but for the answering of them a 

 vast quantity of evidence has been collected within the last 

 few years, and all observations seem to confirm the theory, 



* See Intellectual Observer, August and October, 1866. 

 VOL. X. — NO. VI. G G 



