H. A. Newton — The Story of Biela) s Comet. 91 



can show you several such fragments. There are over a hun- 

 dred of them in our college cabinet, one of which weighs nearly 

 a ton. 



Between these stone-producing meteors and the faintest 

 shooting star I cannot find any clear line of division. We 

 have meteors that break with a loud detonation, but no frag- 

 ments are seen to fall. One such was seen in 1860 from 

 Pittsburgh to New Orleans, and from Charleston to St. Louis. 

 It exploded over the boundary line of Tennessee and Kentucky. 

 We have others which are only seen to break into pieces, no 

 noise being heard. Then we have those which quietly burn 

 out. Like the larger ones, these may leave smoky trains that 

 last for minutes. One such I have seen for 45 minutes as it 

 slowly floated away in the currents of the upper air. 



Thus through the whole range, from the meteors that give 

 us these stones and irons for our museums, down to the faintest 

 shooting star hardly seen by a person watching for it, we pass 

 by the smallest differences. They differ in size, in color of 

 flame, in direction, in train, in velocity. But in astronomical 

 character all seem to be alike. They move in long orbits like 

 comets, and like comets at all angles to the earth's orbit. In 

 fact, a meteoroid is a small comet, not having, however, the 

 comet's tail. 



Let us turn from this long digression again to the story of 

 Biela and tell you what we saw of it in November, 1872. We 

 of course looked for a few fragments from the comet the last 

 week in November, b.ut not quite as early as the 24th. But on 

 that evening they came, in small numbers it is true. Before 

 midnight we saw in New Haven about 250 shooting stars, 

 three-fourths of them from Biela. Very few of them were to 

 be seen the next morning and evening. Then for a day or two it 

 was cloudy. But in the early part of the evening of the 27th 

 they came upon us in crowds. Over 1,000 were counted in an 

 hour. By 9 o'clock the display was over. But we saw only 

 the last few drops of a heavy shower. Before the sun had set 

 with us the shooting stars were seen throughout all Europe, 

 coming too fast to be counted. At least 50,000, perhaps 

 100,000, could have been seen then by a single party of 

 observers. 



Notice what was really seen. Here is a chart of the paths 

 of the shooting stars as actually seen on that evening, and 

 drawn with care at the time upon maps of the stars. You see 

 a few stray flights cutting wildly across the others. These are 

 strangers to the system. 



You see also that the paths do not, as we had reason to 

 expect, all meet in one point. This is not due to errors of 

 observing, for we see it in every star-shower. It is probably 



