102 
POPULAE SCIENCE REVIEW. 
180 seconds beyond its proper terminus. (2) Tbe bright light on the southern 
shore is carried ten to fifteen seconds too far north. (3) Of the four promi- 
nences on this shore, only one can be certainly recognized in the positions 
given. (4) In the best defined part, the western shore is placed twelve 
seconds too far to the west. (5) The bright spot in the Pons Schroeteri is too 
far north, and the bridge itself terminates without crossing the gulf. (6) All 
the features of the northern shore to the east of the Pons Schroeteri have 
been represented north of their true locality, at the same time that the 
direction of the principal lines is largely in error. From the remarkable 
changes which have been observed in the nebula of Eta Argils it may not be 
impossible that the above discrepancies are not errors of observation, but 
real variations, which may have occurred during the last thirty years. It is 
highly important that those discrepancies should be noticed and settled at 
once, so that, should further changes take place in the same direction, astro- 
nomers may have reliable data in respect to those minute details. 
Autographs of the Sun. — Professor Sehv^m submitted a collection of collo- 
dion sun-pictures to the Astronomical Society, taken at Ely in 1863-4, some 
of which were 6|- inches in diameter. Mr. Stewart had noticed in the sun- 
pictures taken with the Kew Heliograph, that the faculae belonging to a spot 
almost always appeared to the left of that spot, the motion due to the sun’s 
rotation being across the picture from left to right ; but Professor Selwyn has 
not confirmed this, but believes that the faculae surrounded the spots equally. 
Professor Secchi, at Pome, has observed clear indications of the whirling 
action of the spots similar to the cyclones of the earth, and Professor Selwyn 
points the attention of observers to the importance of this question, and 
whether the whirling of the spots was in an opposite direction in the two 
opposite hemispheres, i.e. contrary to the hands of a watch in the northern, 
and with them in the southern, as has been observed on the earth. In the 
year 1863 Schwabe counted 124 groups of spots. Mr. Howlett noticed some 
remarkable changes in a spot on January 25th, which he saw actually take- 
place whilst his eye was at the telescope. 
Meteors. — Mr. Herschel, in a paper on the state of meteoric science, has- 
given a new theory respecting the frequency of shooting stars, when the 
earth is moving from aphelion to perihelion, and their rarity in the opposite 
direction. This difierence is very considerable, as Dr. Schmidt finds that 
on an average of 470 meteors which are seen annually at Athens, 400 are 
observed during the last six months of the year, and 70 during the first half. 
The minimum takes place in February, when only 5 are seen, and the maxi- 
mum in August, when 188 on an average were visible. Mr. Pritchard illus- 
trates the principle of Mr. Herschel’s theory by supposing a flat umbrella at 
rest and rain falling on it from aU directions, when the drops will be spread 
equally on its surface ; but if it be carried forward, more drops will fall 
on its anterior than its posterior surface. So long, then, in a similar manner, 
as any particular horizon of the earth is going in the same direction as the 
earth’s orbital motion, an additional number of meteors will be met with, 
the opposite point of the earth being comparatively sheltered. In northern 
latitudes, therefore, more meteors will be visible near the autumnal than at 
the vernal equinox. The case will be inverted in the southern hemisphere, 
and it is to be hoped that data will not be wanting in order to test the trutE 
