few erratic ones, but the majority observe this law. It certainly looks,
at first sight, as if all the shooting stars did actually dart from this
point; but a little reflection will show that this is a case in which
the real motion is different from the apparent. If there actually were a
point from which these meteors diverged, then from different parts of
the earth the point would be seen in different positions with respect to
the fixed stars; but this is not the case. The radiant, as this point is
called, is seen in the same part of the heavens from whatever station
the shower is visible.

[Illustration: Fig. 77.--The Radiant Point of Shooting Stars.]

We are, therefore, led to accept the simple explanation afforded by the
theory of perspective. Those who are acquainted with the principles of
this science know that when a number of parallel lines in an object have
to be represented in a drawing, they must all be made to pass through
the same point in the plane of the picture. When we are looking at the
shooting stars, we see the projections of their paths upon the surface
of the heavens. From the fact that those paths pass through the same
point, we are to infer that the shooting stars belonging to the same
shower are moving in parallel lines.

We are now able to ascertain the actual direction in which the shooting
stars are moving, because a line drawn from the eye of the observer to
the radiant point must be parallel to that direction. Of course, it is
not intended to convey the idea that throughout all space the shooting
stars of one shower are moving in parallel lines; all we mean is that
during the short time in which we see them the motion of each of the
shooting stars is sensibly a straight line, and that all these straight
lines are parallel.

In the year 1883 the great meteor shoal of the Leonids (for so this
shower is called) attained its greatest distance from the sun, and then
commenced to return. Each year the earth crossed the orbit of the
meteors; but the shoal was not met with, and no noteworthy shower of
stars was perceived. Every succeeding year found the meteors approaching
the critical point, and the year 1899 brought the shoal to the earth's
track. In that year a brilliant meteoric shower was expected, but the
result fell far short of expectation. The shoal of meteors is of such
enormous length that it takes more than a year for the mighty procession
to pass through the critical portion of its