34 Qnestlonsjor Solution relating ta Meteorology/, 



myriads of small bodies which are not visible but when they 

 penetrate into our atmosphere and there become inflamed ; that 

 these asteroids (to adopt the name which Herschel long since 

 applied to Ceres, Pallas, Juno, and Vesta) move in a certain 

 sense in groups ; that others are insulated ; and that the assidu- 

 ous observation of these falling stars will be, at all events, the 

 only means of enlightening us in regard to these curious phe- 

 nomena. 



We have just mentioned the appearance of falling stars no- 

 ticed in America in 1833. These meteors succeeded each 

 other so quickly, that they could not be counted ; but a mode- 

 rate calculation makes their number amount to a hundred thou- 

 sand.* They were seen along the eastern side of America from 

 the Gulf of Mexico to Halifax, from nine o''clock in the evening 

 to sunrise, and even, in some places, during the light of day, at 

 eight o'clock in the morning. All these meteors issued fiom the 

 same point of the shy, situate near y of the Lion ; and that not- 

 withstanding the altering position of this star in consequence of 

 the diurnal movement of the sphere. This, then, is assuredly 

 a very strange result, and we shall cite another which is not 

 less so. 



The shower of falling stars in 1833, took place, as we have 

 already said, on the night of the 12th and 13th of November. 



In 1799, a similar shower was observed in America by M. de 

 Humboldt ; in Greenland, by the Moravian Brothers ; and in 

 Germany, by various persons. The date is the night from the 

 ilth to the 12th of November. 



•- Th,e stew vere so numerous, and appeared in so many different regions 

 of the sky at once, that in attempting to reckon them, one would only expect 

 to arrive at a very rough approximation. An observer at Boston compares 

 them, when at the maximum, to half the number of flakes which are seen in 

 the air during an ordinary fall of snow. When the phenomenon was con- 

 siderably on the decrease, he counted 650 stars in 15 minutes, although cir- 

 cumscribing his observations to a zone, which did not include the tenth part 

 of the visible horizon. This number, in his opinion, was not more than two 

 thirds of the whole ; thus there must have been 866, and in the whole of the 

 visible horizon, 8660. This last number would give 34,640 stars per hour. 

 But the phenomenon lasted for 7- hours, the number therefore that appeared 

 at Boston must have exceeded 240,000 ; for it must not be forgotten that the 

 data on which these calculations are founded, were not collected till the phe- 

 nomenon was considerably on the decline. 



