384 



Miscellanies. 



cern. Independently of tlieory, it would be a very curious fact if it 

 were made out, that meteoric displays of an unusual kind occurred 

 annually, on the same night, and I was induced to observe on the 

 nifrht of the 13th of Nov. 1834, with reference to fact rather than 

 theory. Prof. Olmsted states his conclusions from observations made 

 at New Haven, in these words: "On the morning of the 13th of 

 Nov. (1834,) there was a slight 'recurrence of the meteoric shower 

 which presented so remarkable a spectacle on the corresponding 



morning of 1833."* 



My views as resulting, first from observations made at Philadel- 

 phia on the morning of the 13th3 are, that " there occurred the 13th 

 of Nov. 1834, no remarkable display of meteors of the kind wit- 

 nessed in 1833." To sustain this, after recording the meteors seen 

 by me on the 13th of Nov. 1834, 1 undertook to show, 1. That 

 the meteors which 1 saw were neither in degree, nor in their most 

 striking peculiarity, like a portion of the meteoric phenomena of 

 Nov. 1833. 2. That they were similar both in degree and kind 

 to common meteors. The small number and absence of a com- 

 mon radiant, supports the first position. The nearness to the num- 

 ber frequently seen at a period of the night and a period of the 

 year, when these meteors are less frequent than early in the morn- 

 ing, and late in the autumn, together with the very different points 

 in which their paths, if produced, would have intersected, show the 

 second. 



The new^ facts presented by my friend, Prof. Olmsted, and upon 

 which 1 now proceed to remark, are classified by him as " foreign 

 testimonies" and " domestic testimonies." The first are somewhat 

 particular, but the latter quite general. The foreign testimonies al- 

 luded to are those of the Rev. W. B. Clark, A. M., F. G. S- &:c., 

 and W. H, White, Esq. both of England. These gentlemen saw 

 meteors oh the morning of the 1 3th of Nov. 1834. 



The opinion of Mr. Clark, in relation to the meteors which he 

 saw, is to be found in the same paragraph from which Prof- Olm- 

 sted has quoted his observation. It is thus expressed: "the coinci- 

 dence between these and those seen in America and Europe on this 

 day of the month is curious, hut those which I now mention were 



♦ Am. Joar. of Science, Vol. XX VII, p. 417. Jour. Frank. Inst. Vol, XVI. p. 

 368. In an article headed Zodiacal Light, between which and the meteors Prof. 

 Olmsted's theory leads him to infer a connexion. 



