Hydrography y and the Art qf Navigation. 35 



In 1832, Europe, Arabia, &c., were witnessed of the sanlc 

 phenomenon, but on a smaller scale. The date of its appear- 

 ance is again the night of the 12th to the 13th November. 



This near approach to identity in the dates, authorizes w% the 

 more to invite our young navigators to watch attentively what- 

 ever may appear in the sky from 10th ^o 15th November, since 

 the observers who were favoured with a clear atmosphere and 

 expected the phenomenon last year (1834), saw maDifest traces 

 of it on the 12th and 13th of November.* 



The Zodiacal Light. — The zodiacal light, although known 

 for nearly two centuries, still presents a problem which has not 



• Since my report was read to the Academy, M. Berard, one of the best 

 informed officers in the French navy, has had the kindness to address to me 

 the following extract from the journal of the brig Loiret, of which he waa the 

 commander : — 



" On the 13th November 1831, at 4 o'clock in the morning, the sky was 

 perfectly pure with abundance of red, but we saw a considerable number of 

 falling stars and luminous meteors of large size. For upwards of three heurs 

 there could not, on an average, be fewer than two every minute. One of the 

 meteors which appeared in the zenith, left au enormous train, forming a very 

 broad luminous band (equal to half the diameter of the moon), in which many 

 of the colours of the rainbow were very distinctly seen. We were then on the 

 coast of Spain, near Carthagena, the thermometer in the air,. 62.6 Fahr. (17'. 

 cent.); barometer, 30 inch. 3.4 lin. ; temperature of the sea, 18°. H centi." 



On the 13th November 1835, a large and brilliant meteor fell near Belley, 

 in the department of Ain, and burned a barn. On the same night a falling 

 star, more brilliant than Jupiter, was observed at Lille by M. Belezenne. 

 It left behind it, in its passage, a train of sparks in every respect resemUing 

 those produced by a squib. 



All these facts tend more and more to confirm us in the belief^ that there 

 exists a zone composed of millions of small bodies, whose orbits meet the 

 plain of the ecliptic towards the point which the earth occupies every year, 

 from the 11th to 13th of November. It is a new planetary world just begin- 

 ning to be revealed to us. 



It is doubtless unnecessary for me to say how important it would be at 

 present to inquire whether other trains of asteroids meet the ecliptic in the 

 different points of that in which the earth is placed towards the 13th of No- 

 vember. This investigation would require to be made, for examplie, from 

 20th to 24th of April ; for in 1803 (I believe it ^vas on the 22d of April), 

 there was seen in Virginia and the ]Massachusets, from one o'clock till three 

 in the morning, falling stars in such numbers and in all directions, that it might 

 have been supposed to be a shower of rockets. 



Messier relates that, on the 17th June 1 777, towards mid-day, he saw a 

 prodigious number of black globules pass across the sun for about fiveminutes* 

 Might not these globule."? likewise be asteroids ? la^^yi' , 



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