Miss Zornlin on the Periodical Shooting Stars. 353 



" a ball of fire was observed to be precipitated into the sea ;" 

 and Colonel Reid mentions that "many of the descriptions of 

 these whirlwinds speak of visible flame attending them, and 

 occasionally of a remarkable noise." If we suppose the por- 

 tion of ignited matter to consist solely of oxygen and hydro- 

 gen, the result would be pure water; and, when formed in 

 elevated strata of the atmosphere, no trace evident to our 

 senses might remain (unless, indeed, when these meteors 

 should occur in vast numbers, in which case the light re- 

 flected by the newly-formed water or vapour, might present 

 the appearance of luminous bands) : but if such an ignition 

 and explosion were to take place in lower strata, it might give 

 rise to the showers of rain which fall so suddenly in water- 

 spouts. The atmosphere, however, contains a large propor- 

 tion of nitrogen, and in its lower strata, carbonic acid, as also 

 various foreign substances, more especially in the vicinity of 

 volcanos, (where, as we shall see in the sequel, these meteors 

 are of very frequent occurrence,) carried up into it by evapo- 

 ration and other means. And should a combination with such 

 substances take place, red rain, meteoric dust, and perhaps 

 even aerolites might be formed. The ignition of such foreign 

 matter might also account for the various hues of different 

 shooting stars, and also for the trains of sparks occasionally 

 observed. 



If we can suppose this hypothesis to be an approximation 

 to the truth, it would unfold to us highly interesting views of 

 processes continually in progress in nature's laboratory : — the 

 perpetual formation and decomposition of water; dissolution 

 and renovation unceasingly occurring in the very constitu- 

 tion of that portion of the terrestrial globe, which, among all 

 the geologicaj revolutions that have taken place on its sur- 

 face, appears to have suffered the least change — the world of 

 waters*; changes analogous to those observable in all other 

 departments of the natural world ; changes by which, in fact, 

 Nature appears to maintain " her health, her beauty, her fer- 

 tility." And these remarkable meteors might thus be re- 

 garded as celestial beacons, shining forth to impart to us in- 

 formation of physiological changes in the very act of occurring, 

 perhaps, in the remotest regions of our atmosphere. 



Should such be the origin and office of these meteors, we 

 might, however, expect to find them of continual occurrence, 



* The decomposition and formation of water is continually in progress 

 on the earth's surface by combustion and other means ; but Nature plans 

 for a globe uninhabited by man; and, with the exception of rare and occa- 

 sional conflagrations caused by the electric fluid, and perhaps by spontane- 

 ous ignition, fire is not kindled on the earth without human agency. 



Phil. Map. S. 3. Vo). 19. No. 125. Nov. 1841. 2 A 



