The comet belonging to the November system is a small one--quite an insignificant little comet--only visible through a telescope. We do not, of course, know positively that larger comets and greater meteorite systems generally go together, but, to say the least, it seems likely. And if the greatness of a ring can at all be judged of by the size of its comet, then the November system must be a third-rate specimen of its kind. It is of particular importance to us, merely because it happens to be the one into which our earth plunges most deeply, and which we therefore see and know the best. The August ring is, on the contrary, connected with a magnificent comet, and may be a far grander system. But our pathway does not lead us into the midst of the August meteors as into those of November. We pass, seemingly, through its outskirts. The meteorites of the November system are very small. They are believed to weigh commonly only a few grains each. If they were larger and heavier, some of them would fall to earth as aerolites, not more than half-burnt in their rush through the atmosphere. But this they are never found to do. There are known meteorite systems, which our earth merely touches or grazes in passing, from which drop aerolites of a very different description--large, heavy, solid masses. It is well for us that we do not plunge into the midst of any such ring, or we might find our air, after all, a poor protection. The last grand display of the November system of meteorites took place in the years 1866 to 1869, being continued more or less during three or four Novembers following. The next grand display will occur in the year 1899. For this system--Leonides, as it is called, because the falling-stars in this display seem all to shoot towards us from a spot in the constellation Leo--seems to have a “time” or “year” of thirty-three and a quarter earthly years. The shape of its orbit is a very long ellipse, near one end of which is the sun, while the other end is believed to reach farther away than the orbit of Uranus. A great deal of curiosity has been felt about the actual length and breadth and depth of the stream of meteorites through which our solid earth has so often plowed her way. During many hours at a time, lookers-on have watched the magnificent display of heavenly fireworks,--not a mere shooting-star here and there, as on common nights, but radiant meteors, flashing and dying by thousands through the sky. In 1866 no less than eight thousand meteors, in two hours and a quarter, were counted from the Greenwich Observatory in England. A natural wonder sprang up in many minds as to the extent of the ring from which they fell.