But just here is the best part of the story, for although the comets have completely vanished, in their place every year comes a radiant display of meteors! These meteors—the Andromids, coming on the 27th of November regularly—are believed to be the "fragments of the lost comet of Biela"! Thus, Serviss, with a touch of art, gives the shivery atmosphere of Poe to such an uncanny proceeding.
Although comets have here been placed with planets and planetoids under the heading of "The Children of the Sun," we are not sure, as yet, of the origin of comets. There is one theory which suggests that comets may be the waste material of the solar system; the left-overs, as it were, after the planetary system was formed. Again, perhaps, a great comet may be material drawn in from outside space, perhaps flying back and forth between two stars until it becomes so exhausted that one of the stars is able to capture it. At least we know that the solar system now possesses a great number of comets who bow to the mastery of our star and never wander beyond the orbits of his planets. If these are not true children of the sun they are at least his adopted ones, and there is nothing that will ever lure them from his magnetic personality.
Meteors
Meteoric showers are popularly called "shooting stars." At least one shooting star may be seen every ten minutes but at certain times of the year they appear in showers. Three of the most profuse of these "star" showers appear from the
9th to 11th of August—Perseus (radiant point)
13th to 15th of November—Leo
27th to 29th of November—Andromeda
The Perseids, radiating from a point in the constellation of Perseus, are best seen about three o'clock in the morning. These meteors are called the "Tears of Saint Lawrence" and are noted in ancient legends as the "fiery tears" of this saint who was cruelly persecuted and burned at the stake. His festival is celebrated on the 10th of August, but his "tears" fall for three whole nights.
The Leonid star shower radiates from the vicinity of the star Y in the Sickle of Leo and rains most thickly in the early morning hours. On an average of every 33 years the earth's orbit seems to cut through a denser portion of this meteoric swarm which causes especially beautiful displays. There is a record of this spectacular performance for a thousand years back, although it was not until after the brilliant displays of 1799, 1833 and 1866 that astronomers began a vigorous investigation of the subject of shooting stars. On the night of November 13th, 1833, "the stars fell like flakes of snow, varying in size from a moving point or phosphorescent line to globes of the moon's diameter." A witness of the spectacle wrote for the Christian Advocate and Journal of the following month, 1833, the following enthusiastic description:
"It seemed as if the whole starry heavens had congregated to a point near the zenith, and were simultaneously shooting forth, with the velocity of lightning, to every part of the horizon; and yet they were not exhausted; thousands swiftly followed in the track of thousands, as if created for the occasion."
This shower was particularly well observed in the eastern part of North America. One eye-witness in the Southern States says that the negroes on the plantations were so unnerved that they "lay prostrate on the ground, some speechless and some with the bitterest cries, but with their hands upraised, imploring God to save the world and them." Another witness of the scene in the vicinity of Niagara Falls says that "no spectacle so terribly grand and sublime was ever before beheld by man as that of the firmament descending in fiery torrents over the dark and roaring cataract." Comstock tells of one illiterate observer being anxious to see how the heavens would appear the next evening, for he believed that there would be no stars left. In 1866 this shower was also a wonderful spectacle commencing "about 11:30 P. M., with the appearance at brief intervals of single meteors; then they came in twos and threes, steadily and rapidly increasing in number till 1 h. 13 min. A. M. on November 14th, when no fewer than 57 appeared in one minute. From this time the intensity of the shower diminished gradually, wholly ceasing about 4 A. M. The total number of meteors which at that time came within the limits of the earth's atmosphere was estimated at about 240,000." This was not as brilliant a spectacle as when in 1833 the meteors fell like snowflakes, but it must have been very fine for, to continue with the description of an observer who witnessed it from Great Britain: