352 Miss Zornlin on the Periodical Shooting Stars. 



to 



great a degree in the atmosphere*, as to cause the compression 

 and combination of the elements of oxygen and hydrogen ? 

 a combination which would be accompanied by ignition and 

 explosion, and by the formation of water. May not such 

 ignition and explosion produce the luminous appearances 

 called shooting stars ? 



Processes of this description might be in progress at all ele- 

 vations in the atmosphere to which oxygen and hydrogen (and 

 perhaps, in some cases, nitrogen also) can extend or be forced 

 in contact; and consequently, wherever aqueous vapour ex- 

 ists to be decomposed, that is, probably, to the utmost limits 

 of our atmosphere ; and perhaps these gases may even occa- 

 sionally be driven by electric currents beyond its ordinary 

 limits. If such an explosion should take place beyond these 

 limits, or even in very elevated strata of the atmosphere, it 

 would necessarily be noiseless ; but if within a short distance 

 of the earth's surface, a detonation might be heard. The lat- 

 ter phaenomena might also, in some instances, appear of large 

 dimensions, and occasionally (as in the case of the meteor al- 

 ready alluded to at Barbadoes) approach the ground; or 

 even (as in the instance of the large and brilliant meteor which 

 fell on the 13th of November, 1835, and set fire to a barn near 

 Belley, in theDepartementde l'Aint») might sometimes cause 

 the ignition of combustible substances. The apparent balls 

 of fire, occasionally witnessed during thunder-storms, may, 

 perhaps, be of similar or nearly similar origin. And in these 

 meteors we might also find an explanation of the remarkable 

 phsenomenon of thunder in a clear and serene sky, alluded to 

 by M. Arago in the Annuaire for 1838, and observed by Mr. 

 Addison at Great Malvern on the 4th of August, 1835, when 

 " a remarkable noise was heard at 4 p.m., like at.loud clap of 

 thunder, the air at the time being quite free from cloud, and 

 the sun hot and brilliant J." Nor is it impossible, that to a 

 somewhat similar cause may be attributed the phaenomena of 

 water-spouts, and perhaps also of whirlwinds^; for Captain 

 Beechey, speaking of the former, relates that on one occasion 



* The remarkable fact, very recently observed, of the production of 

 electricity by the jets of steam issuing from boilers, and the instance it, 

 gives of the evolution of electricity upon an enormous scale, during the 

 conversion of water into vapour, (see Phil. Mag., November 1840, S.3. vol. 

 xvii. p. 370.) tends to confirm and support the views here advanced. 



f Annuaire du Bureau dcs Longitudes, 1836. 



X Report to the British Association for the Advancement of Science, 

 1839. 



§ It is, at least, a singular coincidence, that the remarkable phaenomenon 

 of moving pillars of sand, as described by Bruce, in Nubia, occurred on the 

 Hth and 15th of November. 



