20 Proceedings of the Asiatic Society. [Jan. 



was, that a line darted from c across fi and onward, the line becoming 

 a meteor some distance farther on. Again, the set of three or four 

 which I have called a above, shot south-eastward, leaving Begulus 

 a little to the east : starting nearly on a parallel with Begulus, their 

 pale traces, left in the sky, converged unmistakeably up to c and /a, 

 one trace proceeding a little more north than the other : and the 

 meteor noticed above which blazed out between these two stars 

 appears to reveal the true point of divergence : Some point near 

 y Leonis was the diverging point in 1833 ; if other observers 

 confirm my statement, some step, I imagine, will be gained towards 

 the determination of the orbit of the November shoal. 



" On the supposition that the meteors are not self-luminous, but 

 become visible after contact with our atmosphere, it would appear 

 that the atmosphere was unpierced by any meteors, (two excepted,) to 

 a distance of about 10° at most, all round e. 



" The apex of the Zodiacal light appeared to be some degrees south 

 of both of e and y Leonis." 



21st November, 1866. 



" As a sequel to my letter of the 21st ultimo regarding the Novem« 

 ber meteors, I beg to forward the following particulars. The 27th to 

 the 29th November, and 7th to 12th December, are dates of observation 

 for meteors of a similar kind ; but diverging meteors were not seen 

 again or detected till 2 J a. m. of the 12th December ; they irfight have 

 come on at an earlier hour of that date, and they appear to have 

 passed off by 3 a. m. 



" They shot divergingly and with great rapidity, not from a point 

 near y or « Leonis, but some point to the westward of these, between £ 

 in the muzzle of Leo Major and the small stars in the foot of the 

 Lynx and the tip of its tail ; some point about 29° or 30° of north 

 Declination, and 136° of Right Ascension. They darted out at the rate 

 of about three per minute ; were small, described short and thin arcs 

 of light, and left no traces : hence it was difficult to fix with any 

 degree of precision upon the exact point of divergence. Some showed 

 themselves only as moderate blazes or bursts of light about 40° or 50° 

 from this point, without any visible arc of light or course. A bright 

 meteor with a long train shot across the area of divergence from nearly 

 due south to north, or from Alphard in Hydra to in Ursa Major. 



