82 
POPULAR SCIENCE REVIEW. 
Among all the meteors seen by the present writer, from 11 p.m. on Tues- 
day till 2 a.m. on Wednesday morning, two only were decided exceptions to 
the general direction. At the radiant point itself, it was a subject of gene- 
ral remark, the meteors appeared trainless, and shone out for a moment 
like so many stars, because they were directly approaching us ; near this 
spot they were so numerous, and all so foreshortened, and for the most 
part faint, that the sky at times put on almost a phosphorescent appear- 
ance. As the eye travelled from this region, the trains became longer, those 
being longest as a rule which first made their appearance overhead, or 
which tended westward. There were moments in which the meteors belted 
the sky like the meridians on a terrestrial globe, the pole of the globe being 
represented by the radiant point. 
It is to be hoped, now the full significance of the radiant has come out, 
that we may soon have a complete discussion of all the radiant points 
hitherto determined, and their relationship with the direction of the earth’s 
motion. 
So much for one part of the theory. The Astronomer Eoyal has called 
attention to the meaning of the lulls in the display ; we have here possibly 
a means of determining the shape of the meteoric ring through which we 
passed. It will be seen from the following table that these lulls were but 
subsidiary to a well-marked rise and fall : — 
li. h. 
No. of Meteors. 
Tuesday night, between 9 and 10 
10 
Nov. 13. 
9 — 11 
15 
11 — 12 
. 168 
Wednesday morning, 
12—1 
. 2032 
Nov. 14. 
1—2 
. 4860 
2—3 
. 832 
3—4 
. 528 
4—5 
40 
From 9 to 10.30 the rate of fall was one per minute ; at 12 the numbers 
increased, and rose at 12.10 to 20 a minute ; twenty minutes afterwards the 
number was 37; then after thirty minutes, 70; then 47 a minute for the 
next ten minutes ; and then a rise to 90 a minute. The total number re- 
corded was 8,485, and the time of maximum was between 1 and 2. 
That the ring is thin seems to follow from the fact that the maximum 
display was seen at Malta pretty much at the same time as w r ith us, and 
that the shower had entirely ceased by the time the radiant point had risen 
in America. 
It is not necessary on the present occasion to refer more particularly to the 
various observations made ; we trust soon to be in a position to give a 
summary of all the facts new to science gained from them. 
We now come to the Sun. Messrs. De La Rue, Stewart, & Loewy have 
published the Second Series of their u Researches on Solar Physics;” giving 
the area-measurements of the sun-spots observed by Carrington during the 
seven years from 1854-1860 inclusive, and deductions therefrom. 
