* 



136 On the Meteors of 13*A November, 1833. 



' I 



the house tops, and then suddenly to vanish. Those which we par- 

 ticularly remarked, appeared to descend in an angle of sixty de- 

 grees with the horizon ; but, as the smaller ones were so numerous, 

 and crossed each other in different directions, it was only possible to 

 ascertain with any degree of precision, only the paths of the largest 



and most brilliant." 



The same exhibition was seen in the western part of Massachu- 

 setts, and probably in the intermediate country, although no records 

 of the observations have reached us. 



Remarkable exhibitions of shooting stars were seen in several parts 

 of the earth at the corresponding time of the year 1832. On the 

 night of November 19th, of that year, an extraordinary display of 

 this kind occurred in England which is thus noticed in the English 

 papers. At Portsmouth, " the heavens presented a very extraordi- 

 nary appearance, shortly after midnight. Thousands of meteors were 

 seen continually darting about in all directions, and the whole atmos- 

 phere was unusually illuminated. The driver of the night London 

 coach, describes the effect as awful, and says it was with difficulty he 

 could get his horses to face it. The same appearances seem to have 

 been observed in various other places." The York Herald, speak- 

 ing of the same night, says : " It was fine and moon light, when a 

 series of fiery meteors were observed to flit across the heavens, with 

 the rapidity and continuance of a regular discharge from a battery 

 during a severe bombardment. They issued from the west, and in 

 the first half hour of the phenomenon, twenty five of those balls of 

 fire were counted, shooting along in terrific grandeur, and leaving a 

 train of brilliant white to designate the course of their path. One of 

 these balls had a very curious appearance, and seemed to drive a 

 star before it." 



In the Salem Register is an extract from the Journal of Capt. 

 Hammond, giving an account of the shooting stars seen at Mocha, in 

 the Red Sea, November 13fA, 1832. " From one o'clock A. M. till 

 after day light, there was a very unusual phenomenon in the heav- 

 ens. It appeared like meteors bursting in every direction. The sky 

 at the time was clear, the stars and moon bright, with streaks of light, 

 and thin white clouds interspersed in the sky. On landing in the 

 morning, I inquired of the Arabs if they had noticed the above ; they 

 said they had been observing it most of the night. I asked them if 

 the like had ever appeared before : the oldest of them replied that 

 it had not." 



