460 The November Meteor-Shower at Glasgow. 



joined the lower arch at its extremity close to the west point 

 of the horizon. 



Auroral glare in the north, but not so bright, was seen 

 again at about ten o' clock on the evening of the 10th of 

 November. Between three and five o'clock on the mornings 

 of the 9th, 10th, 12th, and 13th, half-hour watches were kept up 

 at intervals when the sky was clear, and the greatest number 

 seen was six meteors in half an hour, on the morning of the 

 12th of November. These were the preliminaries of the dis- 

 play. From Professor Grant's description we learn that 

 " The early part of the night of the 13th did not promise well — 

 heavy rain and drenching showers alternating with clear views 

 of the sky and the stars." And again, that " between midnight 

 and one o'clock the sky on the whole was not favourable for 

 observation, but occasional views of the heavens showed un- 

 mistakably that we were on the track of the meteoric shower, 

 for the meteors were obviously shooting athwart the sky with 

 increasing frequency." During this hour my share of the 

 spectacle began. 



At about midnight, an orange- coloured meteor, nearly as 

 bright as Jupiter, shot overhead, with a slightly wavy motion, 

 from Capella to near the head of Aries — a space of 45° or 50° 

 ■ — in about a second and a half of time ; leaving a bright streak 

 for a few seconds on its course. This was the first brilliant 

 shot seen, and for the early hour of its appearance, when the 

 phenomenon did not exceed an ordinary display on a fair 10th 

 of August night, it was indeed startlingiy bright. At a later 

 stage of the night, when a few of the superlatively large meteors, 

 or "ring-tail roarers" of the shower (to use an Americanism), 

 made their appearance, and multitudes, unnumbered, of its 

 compeers thronged the sky, it would not have arrested atten- 

 tion for a moment. Expectation was gradually raised, when, 

 toward 12h. 30m. a.m., three meteors near together first ap- 

 peared simultaneously, and drew the eye irresistibly to the 

 locality in Leo, from whence they appeared to diverge, and 

 whence a whole fleet of similar craft might shortly be expected 

 to arise above the horizon, like argosies in full sail from 

 foreign parts. 



A cloud from the north-west now overspread the sky, and 

 threatened us with showers of a different kind, likely, in fact, 

 to leave us, at the end, but little wiser, and on the whole much 

 wetter for our watch. It passed, however, quickly, and in the 

 clear space which it left behind it, the next meteor was ob- 

 served. At 12h. 33m. a meteor fully as bright as Venus shot 

 in one second from the right hand of Andromeda to /? Pegasi, 

 leaving upon the first part of its course a bright train in sepa- 

 rate links, which rapidly faded away. The remaining portion, 



