86 Meteoric Phenomenon. 



METEORIC PHENOMENON, 



On the morning of the 13th. of November, from midnight to near 

 sunrise, a period of more than six hours, the whole horizon, and the 

 heavens to an immense height, were filled with fiery meteors or 

 " shooting stars," as far as the eye could reach. They appeared to 



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take their course from a point a little south east of the zenith, to 

 every quarter of the compass, sloping at an angle of thirty or forty de- 

 grees, generally towards the earth ; some however took nearly a hor- 

 izontal direction. They were of all sizes, from that of a small point 

 to three times the diameter of the planet Venus, and leaving a train 

 of light in their course like that of a rocket. The larger ones threw 

 a glare of light equal to that of a smart flash of lightning across the 

 horizon, and left a luminous train, generally of a greater width than 

 the diameter of the meteor, continuing for several minutes after 

 their extinction, resembling a shining serpentine cloud of the class 

 called " cirrus f* and retaining its brightness for many minutes, from 

 three or four to fifteen ; and appearing to curve and move some de- 

 grees upward, very slowly before they vanished. No noise or re- 

 port could be heard from the largest, a proof of their great elevation 

 although numbers were observed to scintillate and fly into numerous 

 small sparks at the moment of extinction. The sky, at the time, was 

 perfectly clear of clouds, with a brisk breeze from the S. Wr The 

 atmosphere had a yellowish tinge and was so very luminous as great- 

 ly to obscure the fixed stars. Fahrenheit's thermometer, stood at 36° 

 and the barometer at 29.50 inches. The latter part of the previous 

 night, it had rained profusely, and the twelfth, or day previous was 

 fair and windy, bar. at 29 # 40 inches and ther. at 50° at noon. Me- 

 teors were falling like a shower of snow for a period of nearly six 

 hours, or from twelve or one o'clock to past six A. M. Some few 

 were seen as early as ten o'clock P. M. of the twelfth, from which 

 time they gradually increased in numbers and in brilliancy until 4 

 o'clock : at which period they were in the greatest abundance. A 

 phenomenon so rare, so brilliant and so sublime, could not fail to 

 strike with wonder and with awe, its numerous beholders. Many 

 could not believe it to be a natural phenomenon depending on the 

 regular laws of nature, but supposed it was a miraculous occurrence 

 intended to warn the inhabitants of the earth of some great and im- 

 pending calamity. The most striking and interesting part of the 



