Hydrography, and the Art of Navigation, dS 



been directed to falling stars, it has been seen how much these 

 long despised phenomena, — these pretended atmospheric meteors, 

 — these so-called trains of inflamed hydrogen gas, are de- 

 serving of attentive examination. Their parallax has already 

 placed them much higher than seems to accord with the sensible 

 limits of our atmosphere according to the received theories.* 

 While searching for the apparent direction in which these falling 

 stars usually move, it has been ascertained that even though they 

 are inflamed in our atmosphere, it is not from it that they ori- 

 ginate, but that they come from without. This direction, 

 which is their most habitual one, seems diametrically opposed to 

 the movement of the eai'th in its orbit ! 



It is desirable that this result should be established by the 

 investigation of a numerous series of observations. We have 

 therefore requested the officers of the watch on board the Bonite^ 

 to note, during the whole of the voyage, the hour at which each 

 of these falling stars ap})ears, its angular height above the hori- 

 zon, and particularly, the direction of its motion. By referring 

 these meteors to the principal stars of the constellations which 

 ihey traverse, the different questions which we have indicated 

 may be resolved at a glance. Here, then, is a subject of research 

 which will occasion no fatigue. It may suffice to attach our young 

 countrymen to the subject, to remark how interestingit would be to 

 establish the fact of the earth being a planet, from proofs derived 

 from such phenomena as falling stars, the inconstancy of which has 

 become proverbial. We might add, if it were necessary, that it is 

 scarcely possible at present to see any other mode of explaining the 

 astonishing appearance of those bodies observed in America on 

 the night of the 12th and 13th November 1833, than by sup- 

 posing that besides the large planets, there move round the sun 



• Comparative observations made in 1823 at Breslau, Dresden, Leipsic, 

 Brieg, and Gleiwitz, by Professor Brandes and^'manyof his pupils, have assign- 

 ed no less than 500 English miles as the height of certain falling stars. 



The apparent speed of these meteors is found sometimes to be 36 miles per 

 second. This is nearly double' the rapidity of the earth's motion round the • 

 sun. Even although we were inclined to regard the half of this apparent 

 velocity as an illusion arising from the effect of the earth's movement in its 

 orbit, there would still remain 18 miles per second as the real velocity of the 

 star, a degree of rapidity which exceeds that of all the superior planets except 

 the earth. 



VOL. XXI. NO, XLl. JULY 1836. C 



