264 On the alleged Periodical Meteors and on Shooting Stars* 



with a tranquil and regularly clouded sky) any sign of radia- 

 tion of heat across the atmosphere. The pith-ball electro- 

 meters, placed in the open air, remained motionless ; lastly, 

 the magnetic needle presented, at eleven minutes past nine, a 

 slight deviation of o, 5 to the east in declination; a deviation 

 which remained the same till a quarter of an hour after mid- 

 night, after which it varied, always in the same direction, and 

 till tlje morning, between 0°*1 and 0°*7. 



Assisted by three amateurs who wished to join me, a conti- 

 nued look-out was kept, not only towards the region of the 

 east, but in every quarter of the heavens ; the terrace of the 

 Observatory commanding the entire horizon. 



From seven to ten o'clock in the evening a light breeze 

 prevailed, hardly perceptible, which blew from the north-east ; 

 and from ten in the evening till seven in the morning the air 

 remained perfectly calm, excepting at three periods, namely, 

 at two, at forty-five minutes past three, and at fifteen minutes 

 past four, when a light breeze was again perceived, and 

 lasted each time ten minutes. 



At forty-five minutes past eight in the evening, and from 

 the south-south-east, a feeble white light illuminated the upper 

 part of the clouds for from three to four seconds. At fifty-one 

 minutes past nine a reddish light, resembling lightning, streak- 

 ed the upper part of the clouds for nearly three seconds, in 

 the east. At forty minutes after eleven there were white glim- 

 merings, very feeble, which streaked the clouds between the 

 north-east and the south-east ; they had a kind of intermitting, 

 and they lasted about six seconds. At thirty-five minutes past 

 one, and directly in the east, there were, in the upper region 

 of the clouds, some lights, in general very feeble, which conti- 

 nued during ten seconds. Lastly, at three minutes past four 

 a white light, less pale, shone for two or three seconds in the 

 elevated stratum of the clouds, in the south-east. But during 

 the whole night, not a single luminous meteor, no shooting 

 star, no aerolite or visible asteroid pierced the clouds to fall 

 in the circle of our horizon. Nevertheless, it is probable that 

 if the sky had not been clouded we should here have very well 

 seen the shooting stars which were observed at the same date 

 in our neighbourhood, in France and elsewhere ; and perhaps 

 the magnificent spectacle which the sky presented at Geneva 

 in the night of the 12th to the 13th of November, 1832, of 

 which Professor Gautier gave an account in the fifty-first vo- 

 lume of the Bibliotheque Universelle, might again have been 

 exhibited before our eyes. 



The result, then, of our observations is, that the shooting 

 stars circulate in a much more elevated region of the sky than 



