alluded to takes place between the 23rd and
27th of that month. It is called the _Andromedid_ Shower, because the
meteors appear to issue from the direction of the constellation of
Andromeda, which at that period of the year is well overhead during the
early hours of the night. These meteors are also known by the name of
_Bielids_, from a connection which the orbit assigned to them appears to
have with that of the well-known comet of Biela.

M. Egenitis, Director of the Observatory of Athens, accords to the
Bielids a high antiquity. He traces the shower back to the days of the
Emperor Justinian. Theophanes, the Chronicler of that epoch, writing of
the famous revolt of Nika in the year A.D. 532, says:--"During the same
year a great fall of stars came from the evening till the dawn." M.
Egenitis notes another early reference to these meteors in A.D. 752,
during the reign of the Eastern Emperor, Constantine Copronymous.
Writing of that year, Nicephorus, a Patriarch of Constantinople, has as
follows:--"All the stars appeared to be detached from the sky, and to
fall upon the earth."

The Bielids, however, do not seem to have attracted particular notice
until the nineteenth century. Attention first began to be riveted upon
them on account of their suspected connection with Biela's comet. It
appeared that the same orbit was shared both by that comet and the
Bielid swarm. It will be remembered that the comet in question was not
seen after its appearance in 1852. Since that date, however, the Bielid
shower has shown an increased activity; which was further noticed to be
especially great in those years in which the comet, had it still
existed, would be due to pass near the earth.

The third of these great showers to which allusion has above been made,
namely, the _Perseids_, strikes the earth about the 10th of August; for
which reason it is known on the Continent under the name of the "tears
of St. Lawrence," the day in question being sacred to that Saint. This
shower is traceable back many centuries, even as far as the year A.D.
811. The name given to these meteors, "Perseids," arises from the fact
that their radiant point is situated in the constellation of Perseus.
This shower is, however, not by any means limited to the particular
night of August 10th, for meteors belonging to the swarm may be observed
to fall in more or less varying quantities from about July 8th to August
22nd. The Perseid meteors sometimes fall at the r