142 On the Meteors of 13th November, 1833. 



Ohio, and at half past 2 o'clock in Missouri and Louisiana ; but in 

 each case, it is said to have been about 4 o'clock.* 



Secondly, suppose the meteoric shower to have commenced on 

 the east, and to have had a progressive motion westward ; then the 

 simultaneous occurrence in different meridians can be accounted for, 

 only on the supposition that such a motion was exactly equal to that 

 of the diurnal revolution. We can hardly conceive of atmospheric 

 bodies acquiring such a motion except in common with the wind ; 

 and we have already adverted to the improbability that the wind 

 blew at the rate of seven hundred and fifty miles per hour. 



Thirdly, suppose the meteoric shower to have commenced on the 

 west, and to have had a progressive motion eastward ; then the oc- 

 currence would have happened much later in the day to places lying 

 eastward. For example, the shower is on the meridian in 87 degrees 

 of west longitude, at 4 o'clock ; at that moment it is 5 o'clock at New 

 Haven ; and before the shower reaches our meridian, it will be later 

 still, by all the time it occupies in passing through 15 degrees of lon- 

 gitude. 



We find it impossible, therefore, to account for the simultaneous 

 occurrence of the meteoric shower at places differing so many de- 

 grees in longitude, on any other supposition than that the source or 

 cloud (so to speak) was nearly stationary with respect to the earth, 

 and beyond the influence of its rotation. 



We are led by the same fact to infer that the cloud was either 

 much larger from north to south than from east to west, or that it had 

 a slow progressive motion in the former direction, either directly from 

 north to south, or from north west to south east. Had it covered as 

 great an extent of country from east to west as it did from north to 

 south, an extent exceeding 30 degrees of latitude, the time of ap- 

 pearance on different meridians could not have been the same ; and 

 had the southerly progress of the cloud been otherwise than slow, the 

 breadth being comparatively small from east to west, we cannot oc- 

 count for the observed duration of the phenomenon, which, in its 

 extreme limits, was about eight hours, namely, from 10 to 6 o^clock, 

 although in most places, not more than three or four hours* Let us 



- 



* No doubt a considerable range must be allowed for loose and indefinite state- 

 ments respecting the time ; but it seems hardly credible that the actual difference of 

 time could have corresponded to the difference of longitude in places so remote, with- 

 out being remarked. 



