THE SIDEREAL UNIVERSE. 731 



vember, the same abundance of shooting-stars has been ob- 

 served. Humboldt and Bonpland, who were witnesses of it 

 in Cumana, relate that the number of luminous trains trav- 

 ersing the sky was so great that the spectator might have 

 thought it was some magnificent display of fireworks, at a 

 prodigious height. At sea the phenomenon is no less ex- 

 traordinary ; it looks like so many rockets which fall to- 

 wards the horizon. 



An attempt has been made to explain this abundance of 

 shooting-stars at the two periods we mention, by supposing 

 that the sun is encircled by a ring composed of myriads of 

 little bodies, which ring the earth passes through annually 

 at these times. 



The number of these meteoric bodies which penetrate 

 into our atmosphere in this way, and appear under a lumi- 

 nous form, is computed at millions. There are some which, 

 according to Humboldt, seem almost to graze the summits 

 of Chimborazo. 



Meteoric stones, which have all the appearance of shoot- 

 ing-stars, but which are much bulkier, and leave behind 

 them a long stream of fire, which for a moment lights up 

 the earth like the moon, must be briefly noticed. 



They sometimes burst with a sound like that of a cannon, 

 and let fall on the earth a number sometimes consider- 

 able, and at others not of meteoric stones, which drop 

 smoking and burning;. 



While speaking of the mysterious phenomena which at- 

 tract our wondering eyes to the celestial regions, we must 

 not, in such a work as this, omit to mention the great lights 

 which often illuminate the heaven of the polar regions dur- 



