.
In other words, the meeting-place of its orbit with that of the earth
retreats (and very rapidly) along the ecliptic instead of advancing. So
that if the "Andromedes" stood in the supposed intimate relation to
Biela's comet, they might be expected to anticipate the times of their
recurrence by as much as a week in half a century. All doubt as to the
fact may be said to have been removed by Signor Zezioli's observation of
the annual shower in more than usual abundance at Bergamo, November 30,
1867.

The missing comet was next due at perihelion in the year 1872, and the
probability was contemplated by both Weiss and Galle of its being
replaced by a copious discharge of falling stars. The precise date of
the occurrence was not easily determinable, but Galle thought the
chances in favour of November 28. The event anticipated the prediction
by twenty-four hours. Scarcely had the sun set in Western Europe on
November 27, when it became evident that Biela's comet was shedding over
us the pulverised products of its disintegration. The meteors came in
volleys from the foot of the Chained Lady, their numbers at times
baffling the attempt to keep a reckoning. At Moncalieri, about 8 p.m.,
they constituted (as Father Denza said[1223]) a "real rain of fire."
Four observers counted, on an average, four hundred each minute and a
half; and not a few fireballs, equalling the moon in diameter, traversed
the sky. On the whole, however, the stars of 1872, though about equally
numerous, were less brilliant than those of 1866; the phosphorescent
tracks marking their passage were comparatively evanescent and their
movements sluggish. This is easily understood when we remember that the
Andromedes _overtake_ the earth, while the Leonids rush to meet it; the
velocity of encounter for the first class of bodies being under twelve,
for the second above forty-four miles a second. The spectacle was,
nevertheless, magnificent. It presented itself successively to various
parts of the earth, from Bombay and the Mauritius to New Brunswick and
Venezuela, and was most diligently and extensively observed. Here it had
well-nigh terminated by midnight.[1224]

It was attended by a slight aurora, and although Tacchini had
telegraphed that the state of the sun rendered some show of polar lights
probable, it has too often figured as an accompaniment of star-showers
to permit the coincidence to rank as fortuitous. Admiral Wrangel was
accustomed to describe how,