considerations connecting the zodial light with the sun's equator, as if it were a solar atmosphere; but such an atmosphere is impossible, and it is high time such measures should be taken as will lead to some certain conclusion. If in the present state of the question, we were to take the mean, we should find the node in about longitude 40°, which is the position of the earth on November 2d. But in the absence of measurements, we will assume, for the sake of argument, that the ascending node of the central plane of the vortex was, in 1833, in 50° heliocentric longitude, and consequently the earth was passing through the meteoric stratum or central plane of the zodial light, on the night of November 12th. The opposite period of the year is May 12th--a date, it is true, on which no great shower of stars is recorded, but sporadic meteors are very plentiful at that time, and what is more important to observe is, that the 11th, 12th, and 13th of May, are the three noted _cold days_ which we have before mentioned. Thus truly indicating that the earth is then in or near the central plane of the vortex along which the radial stream is at its maximum of power at any given distance from the axis. But the question occurs, does the node of this plane remain stationary, and is there no variation of the inclination of the axis of the solar vortex? We have found from observation, that the axis of the terral vortex is continually oscillating about a mean position by the action of the moon; and reasoning from this analogy, and the constant tendency of a material vortex to preserve a dynamical balance, the same tendency must obtain in the solar vortex under the action of the great planets, whose orbits do not coincide with the central plane of the vortex. The ascending node of Jupiter's orbit is in longitude 98°, Saturn's 112°, Uranus' 72°, Neptune's 131°; so that this plane does not correspond with the plane of greatest inertia discovered by La Place, and from the non-coincidence of these planes with the central plane of the vortex, must produce the same oscillation in the axis of the solar vortex, as the moon does in the terral vortex, but to what amount, observation can alone determine. Jupiter and Saturn will of course exert the greatest influence, and when these two planets are in conjunction, the ascending node of the central plane of the vortex will vary in longitude perhaps sufficiently to bring the meteoric maximum at the ascending node into October on the one hand, and to the close of November on the other, and at the descending node to April 25th on the one hand, and the close of May on the other.