580 Liimiiious Meteors. 



Around 



Myriads of insect meteors, living lamps 

 People the glittering air j a fairy world.'* 



At another step, some long lane in the darkness of night 

 seems to have been consumed by fire, and to be throwing up 

 its last expiring sparks. The insects, as they present their 

 backs, conceal their floating lantern for a moment, and render 

 the resemblance perfect, 



" And every hedge and copse is bright. 

 With the quick firefly's playful light ; 

 Like thousands of the sparkling gems. 

 Which blaze in Eastern diadems." 



Presently, with a steady and bold sweeping course, the lumi- 

 nous E'later (E. noctilucus L.) crosses your path, 



— " A meteor swift and bright 



And the wide space around, on high, 

 * Gleams with his emerald light." 



It forms a strong contrast to the twinkling phosphoric fires of 

 the lesser stars, and resembles a wax taper borne rapidly 

 through the gloom, by some invisible hand : while the ear is 

 assailed by countless tribes of sonorous insects, and frogs 

 raising their nuptial cries. 



How glorious is such a scene ! From the innumerable 

 host of insects which light up the earth, and from their proxi- 

 mity to the eye of the spectator, they have all the brilliance 

 of real stars. Above our heads is the broad firmament of 

 stationary lights ; below is a second firmament of luminous 

 points, moving with all the eccentric courses of comets and 

 meteoric balls, and with all the glory that tracks the shooting 

 stars. [See V. 672.] 



\_Luminous Meteors, (A note made in relation to the remarks 

 on ^^ Falling Star s^^' in II. 305.).] — The meteors called falling 

 stars are very common in these islands. I lately observed 

 one of vast magnitude traversing slowly the Bay of Kingston, 

 a most splendid body, and at a very trifling elevation. 



Ignes Fatui. (I. 156.) — The reviewer is undoubtedly right 

 in his supposition that the far-famed ignes fatui, 



" Which dance and glimmer on the marshy mead," 

 may sometimes owe their origin to the phenomena attending 

 the gaseous exhalations of the earth. They sometimes also 

 proceed [as the reviewer has deemed probable] from the 

 lanterns of luminous insects. When a boy in Worcester- 

 shire, I have repeatedly seen these 



aerial lights betray 



And charm th' unwary wanderer from his way ', ' 



and from comparison with the motions of luminous animals, 



