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



is marked upon the plate, by a broad line, has been determined by 

 the following considerations : — The cloud, being formed by a con- 

 traction of the train from each extremity towards the middle, must 

 have occupied a place higher, by several degrees at least, than the 

 lower extremity. Let us suppose this amount of elevation to have 

 been, at Middletown, one quarter of the meteors path, or 7£°. As 

 the cloud, by its motion, rose 8° or 10°, before it faded, its final al- 

 titude, at Middletown, must have been about 53°; while at Brookfield 

 it was observed to be about 42 £° high, nearly in the due east. These 

 inferences, of course, are only presumed to afford an approximation to 

 the truth ; but they have been deduced from the known facts, and have 

 therefore a general correctness. The result is, that the cloud was 

 borne east a distance of 23J miles, in a direction such that it would 

 in fact appear to a spectator at Middletown to trace back the covrse 

 which the meteor had pursued, in the same manner as Mr. Merrick 

 described. At New Haven also, it would be seen to float around 

 nearly to the north, in the manner described by Prof. Olmsted. 

 The cloud must therefore, when it vanished, have held an elevation of 

 about twenty one miles — having descended probably more than sev- 

 enteen miles in addition to its horizontal motion. The distance of 

 twenty three miles and a half — which appears to have been the effect 

 of a current in the atmosphere — was passed in less than four minutes, 

 if we reason from the angular velocity attributed to it by Prof. Olm- 

 sted (See p. 158); but, as the impression there described was proba- 

 bly that of the velocity when it was greatest, the true time was possi- 

 bly longer. Thus Mr. Merrick estimated the time as ten minutes; 

 and various considerations which cannot now be mentioned lead us 

 to the opinion that the time was probably six or seven minutes, and 

 the velocity of the cloud three or four miles a minute. 



But we return to the meteor itself, with a view to the determina- 

 tion of its absolute velocity. The length of its course being already 

 ascertained, within narrow limits, we have only to discuss the question 

 of time. Unfortunately no observation of the number of seconds 

 which the meteor occupied in its flight was made on the spot ; but 

 this omission may be supplied with a useful degree of certainty- — al- 

 though of course not with accuracy. 



All the circumstances in the meteoric shower combine to show that 

 the meteors, both large and small, which were seen by any one ob- 

 server in any one quarter of the heavens, had the same angular velo- 

 city; and that, if we class the meteors with reference to the distance 



