356 On the Meteors of 13th November. 
the needle would point, when left free to move both vertically and hori- 
zontally? So it then appeared to me: and it struck me that the ap- 
parent motions of all the meteors that I saw, might be explained on 
the supposition that they were passing over portions of great circles 
or meridians on a magnetic sphere, described about the magnetic 
needle prolonged to the heavens. They did not all, indeed, begin 
to. be luminous until they had. proceeded many degrees from the 
elevated or south pole of such a sphere: but wherever they first be- 
came visible, they seemed to me to be moving towards its northern 
or depressed pole on meridional circles. 
_ A little reflection, however, will render it obvious that it would 
make no difference as to the apparent paths of these bodies seen from 
the earth, whether they actually described such curves as have been 
mentioned, or moved in straight lines from a great distance towards the 
earth in a direction parallel to that of the magnetic needle freely sus- 
pended ; for in this latter case their apparent paths would coincide 
with such meridional curves; and one fact noticed here favors the 
idea that they were thus projected in parallel lines towards the earth, 
and that the distance of most of them when they started, was so 
great as to coincide with the vanishing point in perspective. Those 
nearest the point of radiation had generally a very slow motion, slow- 
er than in other parts of the heavens, and the apparent velocity, as 
well as brilliancy, in some cases increased as the meteor receded 
from the radiant point. In other instances, after a slow motion over 
a very inconsiderable arc, they disappeared. The inference seems 
unavoidable that in such cases their line of motion was aeorhy towards 
the observer. Fak 
The wind.on the morning of the 13th; seis: hard. foams she ak 
west, and fleecy clouds, often considerably thick, were frequently 
spread over large portions of the sky, especially near day light. But 
in no instance was a meteor observed between the clouds and the 
earth. Even the train of phosphorescent light, which Prof. Olmsted 
has described as remaining near the star Capella, and which was 
gradually folded into, an irregular curve like a serpent, and borne 
eastward by the wind, (as he very probably supposes,) was entirely 
hidden by a cloud passing over it. Hence we must conclude. that 
the seat of this whole display was above the clouds. Yet if the wind 
did actually disturb the phosphorescent train of one of these meteors, 
it must have been within the atmosphere. Another fact, however, 
stated by Prof. Olmsted, seems to indicate that the radiant point of 
