Miscellanies. 419 



of undoubted veracity, informs me that between one and two o'clock P. 

 M., the attention of himself and family was called by some children in the 

 garden, to "something uncommon in the sky." As they did not per- 

 ceive at first what attracted their attention, the children cried out, " Look 

 up there and see those shining things." Looking upward to a point near 

 the zenith, he says they immediately noticed a continual shower of 

 meteors. Being dazzled by the rays of the sun, they smoked a piece of 

 glass, and observed this singular sight for an hour or more. They ap- 

 peared to proceed from a point near the sun, and to shoot in every direc- 

 turn, many apparently falling towards the earth. From Mr. Laptons de- 

 scription of this meteoric display, it must have very much resembled that 

 of November, 1833. Your obedient servant, 



Charles Chase. 



4. Earthquakes in the United States. — Since the commencement of 

 the year, several earthquakes have occurred in the United States, but no 

 serious damage has been occasioned by them: the following is a list. 



Jan. 4, throughout the western, southern, and middle states. Feb. 8, 

 throughout all the Atlantic states, about 10 A. M. Feb. 14 and 15, at 

 New Orleans. Feb. 16, at St. Louis, Louisville, &c. March 14, at 

 various towns in the state of Vermont. 



5. Great Earthquake in the West Indies, Feb. 8. — A most frightful 

 earthquake was experienced in the windward or easternmost cluster of 

 the West India islands, on the 8th of February, 1843. Guadaloupe, and 

 the neighboring isle of Montserat, seem to have been the focus of the 

 disruption. The latter isle is said to have been enveloped in smoke or 

 dust, as if thrown up from a volcano. The town of Point Petre, Guada- 

 loupe, was almost wholly destroyed, every building being thrown down, 

 and more than five thousand persons killed among the ruins. The shock 

 was felt distinctly in various parts of the United States. 



6. On the Leafing of Plants : Remarks by the Archbishop of Dub- 

 lin before the Royal Irish Academy. — It is well known that there is a 

 diversity in the times of leafing and shedding in individual trees of the 

 same species — e. g. hawthorn, sycamore, horse-chestnut, beech, &c. 

 sometimes as much as a fortnight ; and the earliest in leaf are also the 

 earliest shed, the same individuals keeping their time every year. Hence 

 the question whether this diversity arises from the "separable accidents" 

 of soil, situation, &c. or from " inseparable accidents," which constitute 

 what physiologists call varieties. An experiment was tried by grafting 

 an early hawthorn on a late, and vice versa. The scions kept their 

 times, (about a fortnight's difference,) as if on their own stocks, thus 

 proving that it was a case of " seedling variety." 



