432 Supposed Connection of Meteoric Phenomena^ 



of the arguments employed by Mr. Espy, by which it will be 

 seen that there are other reasons, besides those advanced by 

 me, why the cometic theory must be abandoned. 



The facts quoted by Mr. Espy, upon which to found his 

 refutation of Olmsted's theory, are those quoted by me in 

 VII. 290. and 383. from Silliman's Journal, xxv. 363. and 

 xxvi. 132. He says he cannot assent to the theory, because 

 meteors could not fall on the sides of the earth most distant 

 from the sun from any body moving in an orbit interior to 

 that of the earth, which must have been the case with meteors 

 falling at night. Again, if the distance of the comet be 2238 

 miles only, the whole comet must have fallen ; and, even if it 

 had been 29 times as far, the same result must have taken 

 place. Again, gravity would have caused the meteors to have, 

 in this case, fallen perpendicularly to the earth's surface. 



Moreover, the radiant was not fixed. This radiant could 

 not have been stationary amongst the stars, if in the comet, 

 but must have revolved at a rate 5000 miles slower than the 

 earth. No comet, he says, whose periodic time is 182 days, 

 could, in aphelion, or perihelion, appear stationary, whether 

 the aphelion be interior or exterior to the earth's orbit. 



These objections are fatal to the theory. Besides, that 

 theory does not pretend to account for the horizontal and up- 

 ward motions of some of the meteors. Nor does it account for 

 the fact, that the auroral light seen at many distant places was 

 not seen at the intermediate places, which it must have been 

 if 2238 miles from the earth. Facts are then quoted to prove, 

 as I think they do, that the auroral light and meteors pro- 

 ceeded from the same cloud which appeared over the Dela- 

 ware, and which was only 200 yards in apparent length, and 

 from which, between the emission of the auroral light and the 

 meteors, there blew so direct and violent a wind, that the vessel 

 in which the observer was was near dragging her anchors. 

 Many such instances as these occurred in different places. 

 At Dover, New Holland, a similar phenomenon occurred. 

 Capt. Parker, in the Gulf of Mexico, lat. 26° N., long. 85J° w., 

 saw a cloud in the N. e., behind which all the meteors fell; but 

 the first meteors appeared to come from it like lightning. 



" Now, it is highly probable," says Mr. Espy, " that all 

 auroral lights, the triumphal arch, the luminous, and even the 

 non-luminous clouds, from which luminous flashes appeared 

 to proceed on that night, were but variations of one and the 

 same magnificent meteoric display." (p. 12.) Several lu- 

 minous clouds were seen at Poland, Ohio, near Alioth, in 

 Ursa Major. At Niagara Falls, also, there was seen a lumi- 



