424- Supposed Connection of Meteoric Phenomena, 



Kamtschatka or Japan, through the Russian fort above named, 

 and continued through England and that part of America in 

 question (all within a very few degrees of the same latitude), 

 will unite the sites of the terrestrial derangement and the at- 

 mospherical phenomena. In 1831 and 1833, the space visited 

 lies immediately between the limits of the former tracts. But 

 this, I will confess, is not much to be relied on as explanatory, 

 for, whether it be correct or not, it is not actually necessary 

 to the point in dispute ; my argument being, that these meteors 

 are nothing but the result of electrical or volcanic emanations 

 chemically combined and ignited within what is usually deno- 

 minated the earth's atmosphere, and resulting from the same 

 agencies as those more common and decidedly electrical 

 meteors which we call " shooting stars." My purpose has 

 been to show that terrestrial derangements have occurred 

 either contemporaneously with, or within a short period of, 

 the time when these meteors have appeared ; and, although the 

 evidence upon this point must, of necessity, be scanty, because 

 we cannot know how many volcanic eruptions or earthquakes 

 actually occur, whilst the meteoric phenomena may be known 

 and estimated (for they can scarcely escape observation), and 

 consequently the line of argument which I have adopted must 

 depend upon collateral proof and presumptive evidence; yet I 

 still think, that, when all the various facts even yet adduced 

 are duly weighed, it will be allowed, that many a man has 

 been found guilty, condemned, and executed, according to law 

 and justice, upon very much less proof than I have, in these 

 papers, cited to establish the claims of this our globe to the 

 production of phenomena which it appears to me quite as 

 capable of producing as any harlequinading comet in the 

 universe. It is, methinks, treating one of the most important 

 (to us, at any rate) of the solar planets with little respect, to 

 suppose it only a receptacle for the waste contributions of a 

 body that keeps such a mysterious secrecy, and favours us 

 but once a year with a notification of his existence, although, 

 according to the theory of the Transatlantic professors, he 

 comes into contact with our convenient atmosphere every six 

 months. It is to be observed, that these remarkable displays 

 of meteors have been always north of the equator : there is no 

 evidence for them in the southern hemisphere, although they, 

 doubtless, are occasionally seen there. But is the zodiacal 

 light also confined to the north of the equinoctial ? If not, 

 how will the argument then stand for the existence of the 

 comet? Or, are all southern meteors allowed to be electrical ? 

 It is singular, that this light, which is no novelty to astrono- 

 mers, should never before 1799 have developed such propen- 



