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S this work is designed primarily to cover what is observable in the starlit heavens with the naked eye, the subject of meteors, or shooting-stars, comes properly within its scope.

There are few persons, if any, who have not witnessed the sight of a splendid meteor speeding across the sky, and such a sight always calls forth exclamations of wonder and delight.

Apparently these evanescent wanderers in space are without distinctive features, and baffle classification; but, like all that nature reveals to us, they have been found, for the most part, to conform to certain laws, and to bear certain marks of resemblance that permit of their identification and classification.

By careful observation for over fifty years the meteors, generally speaking, have been so arranged that they come under the head of one of the nearly three hundred distinct showers which are now recognized by astronomers.

Many of these showers are too feeble and faint to be worthy of the attention of one not especially interested in the subject, but certain ones are well worth