On the Meteors of 1 3th November, 1 833. 32 1 



upon them at large. Although such coincidences have existed — as 

 that gentleman has, in a very friendly manner, remarked at the close 

 of his memoir — and although they have related to the most material 

 questions which are the subject of discussion, yet (as might be expected 

 from the fact that the writer's ideas were formed and, in fact, com- 

 municated to Prof. Olmsted when he could not possibly know that 

 similar ideas existed in Mr. Olmsted's mind) the grounds of argu- 

 ment are, in some respects, widely different and lead to addition- 

 al, and sometimes to different results. The writer has himself 

 taken up the pen with a threefold purpose, — to discuss and set- 

 tle, if possible, the question, what are the facts ascertained by obser- 

 vation — to notice generally the principal results which may be 

 derived from ihe ascertained facts and more particularly those results 

 which have not yet been made known in any article which has issu- 

 ed from the press; — and finally to review the real strength of the 

 hypothesis which assigns to the meteors a celestial, to the exclusion 

 of a terrestial origin* Although this hypothesis is one among the co- 

 incidences to which Prof. Olmsted has alluded, it will be treated of 

 here as a hypothesis which is due to that gentleman solely ; for the 

 several reasons, that it depends mainly for its evidence upon facts 

 collected by him — that it has appeared already under his name, 

 and that the writer is willing to hold it only as a highly probable hy- 

 pothesis — the best which our present knowledge admits of our en- 



tertajning. 



First. The observed facts. 



m It is established upon the witness of Prof. Thompson and other 

 authority specified in Mr. Olmsted's memoir, and upon a statement 

 to be given at large in a succeeding paragraph, that the first meteors 

 showed themselves as early as nine o'clock in the evening of Nov. 

 12th, in parts of the United States the most distant from each 

 other — for example in the state of Mississippi, at Augusta in Geor- 

 gia, at Charleston, S. C. and on the Hudson river above the city of 

 New York. Probably they might have been seen, faintly and in 

 small numbers, at the same early hour, in any part of the United 

 States, if attention had chanced to be directed to the heavens. At 

 fort Jesup, on the Red River, Lon. 93£° at the hour of half past nine 

 or ten, u not later than ten," the meteors were seen in considerable 

 numbers. Other authorities at different places date the earliest 

 hour of the meteoric appearances at ten o'clock ; and at eleven they 

 were sufficiently remarkable to attract notice very extensively. The 



