Fire- Balls. 313 
Somé attained an elevation of 40°, and all above 25° or 30°. 
The wind was from E., but little was moving in the lower regions 
of the atmosphere. Noclouds were visible. The observer, from 
the beginning of the phenomena, could not perceive a space int 
the firmament equal in extent to three diameters of the moon, 
that was not at every instant filled with fire-balls and falling- 
stars—the latter in greatest number. All left Juminous traces, 
from 5° to 10° in length, as often happens in equinoctial regions, 
visible for seven or eight seconds ; and many of the falling-stars 
exhibited a distinct nucleus, as large as the disc of Jupiter, darting 
out vivid sparks of light. The bodies seemed to explode; but 
the largest, which were from 1° to 14° in diameter, vanished with- 
out scintillation. The light was white, not reddish, owing pro+ 
bably to the transparency of the air. 
In their journey from Caraccas to Rio Negro, the travellers 
made inquiry at every place, whether the meteors of the 12th of 
November had been seen there. They had been seen at Fer-. 
nando de Apuva in lat. 7° 53’ 12”, long.79° 20’; and at Marao 
in lat. 2° 42’, distant 174 leagues from Cumana. The observers 
compared the phenomenon to a beautiful fire-work, which lasted 
from 3 to6 A.M. At the southern extremity of Spanish Guiana, 
Portuguese missionaries assured M. de Humboldt that the phe- 
nomenon had been seen in the Brazils, as far as the equator, or 
over a line of 230°: “* but what was my astonishment,” he says, 
‘© when, on my return to Europe, I learnt that it had been seen 
on an extent of the globe of 64° of latitude, and 91° of longi- 
tude—at the equator, in S. America, at Labrador, and in Ger- 
many?” They were not seen south of the equator. Mr, Ellicot, 
astronomer to the United States, saw them in the Gulf of Flo- 
rida in lat. 25°, long. 81° 30’. To him they appeared to move 
in all directions in every part of the sky, some seeming to fall 
perpendicularly, so that it was expected they would drop into 
the vessel. ‘The same phenomenon was seen in America, in lat. 
30° 42°; in Labrador at Nain, lat. 56° 55’; at Hoffenthal, lat. 
58° 4’; in Greenland at Lichtenan, lat. 61° 5’; and at New Her- 
renhut, lat. 64° 14’, long. 52° 20’. “ The Esquimaux were 
frightened at the enormous quantity of bolides that fell during 
twilight, towards all parts of the firmament, some of which were 
a foot broad. It was also seen in Europe at Weimar, Jat. 
59° 59’, long. 9° 1’, between six and seven in the morning,when 
it was half past two at Cumana.” 
M. de Humboldt observes, that some meteors have not more 
than five leagues of elevation, and the highest do not appear to 
exceed thirty. They have often more than 100 feet diameter ; 
and their velocity is such, that in a few seconds they dart over a 
space of two leagues, Some have been seen to rise upwards, 
forming 
