Page:In the high heavens.djvu/300

place in 1866, and to other showers from the same system which have appeared in such a way as to indicate their recurrence in a period of thirty-three years. It appears perfectly certain that a distinguishing line has to be drawn between those bodies which dash into the atmosphere to be hurled to the earth as meteorites, and those shoals of little bodies which constitute the great meteoric showers.

Fig. 34.—The Orbit of the Leonids which produced the Great Shower in 1866.

This is, I know, a point about which there is much disagreement among astronomers. Excellent authorities have maintained that there is perfect continuity between