88 



Meteoric Phenomenon. 



the air in the gallery. Thousands of fire balls and falling stars suc- 

 ceeded each other during four hours, having a direction from north to 

 south and filling a space of the sky extending from the true east, 

 thirty degrees on either side. They rose above the horizon at E. 

 N. E. and at E. described arcs of various sizes and fell towards the 

 south, some attaining a height of forty degrees, and all exceeding 

 twenty five or thirty. No trace of clouds was to be seen and a very 

 light easterly wind blew, in the lower regions of the atmosphere. All 

 the meteors left luminous trains, from five to ten degrees in length, 

 the phosphorescence of which lasted seven or eight seconds. The 

 fire balls seemed to explode, but the largest disappeared without 

 scintillation, and many of the falling stars had a distinct nucleus, as 

 large as the disk of Jupiter, from which sparks were emitted. The 

 light occasioned by them was white ; an effect which must be attri- 

 buted to the absence of vapors. Stars of the first magnitude having 

 within the tropics a much paler hue, at their rising, than in Europe. 

 As the inhabitants of Cumana, leave their houses before four o'clock 

 to attend the first morning mass, most of them were witnesses of this 

 phenomenon, which gradually ceased soon after, although some were 

 seen a quarter of an hour before sunrise. 55 He found they had been 

 seen by various individuals, in places very remote from each other; 

 and on his return to Europe, was astonished to find that they had 

 been seen there also. They were seen from a point near the equator 

 in Brazil, and in Longitude 70°, to Latitude 64° N. in Greenland ; 

 and as far east as Longitude 9°, near Weimar in Germany. Calcu- 

 lating from these facts it is manifest, that the height of the me- 

 teors was at least one thousand four hundred and nineteen miles, 

 and as near Weimar, they were seen in the S. and S. W. while 

 at Cumana, they were seen in the E. and N. E. we must con- 

 clude that they fell into the sea, between Africa and South America, 

 to the west of the Cape de Verd Islands. From the foregoing de- 

 scription, the meteoric display of 1799, was not so vast, nor so sub- 

 lime and brilliant as that of 1833. 



