prevalent Disorders, fyc, with Volcanic Emanations. 435 



New Haven, New Britain, New York, Richmond, Charles- 

 ton (S. C), St. Maria (Mo. Ter.), Fort Jackson (Lou.), Fort 

 Lavenworth (Ark.), Fort Oglethorpe (Georgia), Fort Moul- 

 trie (S. C.)j Fort Jessup. The sounds heard there were such 

 as could be only heard a few yards off, except those heard 

 at Charleston and Fort Moultrie. At the latter place there 

 were hissing noises heard, and some were like the discharge of 

 a musket ; and one was as loud as a six-pounder. This stands 

 upon undeniable evidence ; nor is there reason, from other 

 well-known and similar atmospheric phenomena, to doubt it. 



These positions, that the meteors were not gravitating bodies, 

 falling towards the earth by the force of gravitation, and, 

 secondly, that they were of atmospheric origin, seem, then, to 

 be fully established. " I hope it will," says the writer, w be 

 considered a matter of some importance to have these two 

 points established, and not merely conjectural. For, the mind 

 being freed from wild speculations and visionary theories as 

 to their celestial or volcanic origin, will be left at liberty to 

 seek their true cause in the atmosphere, where they undoubt- 

 edly take their rise." (p. 89.) 



[As to the non-volcanic origin of these meteors, nothing 

 that follows in Mr. Espy's criticism proves this, if the view I 

 have taken of the subject in hand be considered in all its 

 bearings ; for atmospherical derangements are part of my 

 argument, and, by the very principles developed in my pre- 

 vious papers, I should not be able to advance a volcanic hy- 

 pothesis except I took into consideration the very hypothesis 

 which Mr. Espy himself advances ; for, as will be seen, he 

 leaves the enquiry where I take it up. He establishes a con- 

 nection between the aurora and the meteors, and the supposed 

 zodiacal light of Olmsted, and alludes to an interchange of 

 aerial strata, by rarefaction and vortices produced by a down- 

 ward draught of air ; and I have attempted to show that 

 such downward draughts could not take place without a pre- 

 vious heating of the lower strata of air. If, then, Mr. Espy's 

 hypothesis be correct, that these meteors were produced by 

 this interchange of atmospherical strata, he will allow me to 

 take up that position, and, showing how such an effect may be 

 produced (viz., by terrestrial emanations), establish from his 

 argument my own supposition, that these meteors were no- 

 thing but electrical, and induced by the state of the earth 

 previous to the phenomena in question. The principal argu- 

 ments adduced by Mr. Espy, to connect the aurora and these 

 meteors, are the same which I have already mentioned; the 

 comparative lowness of the aurora ; the hissing and snapping 

 sounds ; the prevalence of meteors on the nights of auroree ; 



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