On the Meteors of 13th November. 357 
these meteors was beyond the atmosphere: for he says that this point 
maintained the same relative position in respect to the fixed stars for 
an hour or more. Such a westerly motion as this implies, was not 
noticed here; but I can easily conceive how the vanishing point of 
these meteors, if they were projected towards the earth, might have 
been beyond the atmosphere, while the place at which their motion 
terminated, might bave been within it; and in the case above men- 
tioned, the great brilliancy of the meteor renders i it probable that it 
was one of the nearest to the earth. - 
It was thought by some in this place that they heard the snapping 
_ or crackling sound said to have been noticed in other places. I 
heard nothing of this sort myself: and I confess myself extremely 
jealous of the accuracy of facts, where there is so much room for the 
play of an excited imagination. 
I know of no other circumstances of peculiar interest in pati to 
this appearance that were observed here. Feeble health prevented 
me as I wished from employing any of the accurate magnetic instru- 
ments belonging to the philosophical apparatus of the College, to de- 
termine the influence of the meteor upon the needle. I hope it has 
been done in other places, although I can hardly suppose the meteor 
was near enough to the earth to produce much effect upon the needle. 
If now I have not greatly misapprehended the facts in this case, 
it seems to me that they lead us to infer a very strong and remark- 
able resemblance between the phenomenon under consideration and 
the aurora borealis. Biot, whose authority on such a subject no one 
will doubt, in his Précis Elémentaire de Physique, as translated by 
Professor Farrar, thus describes the latter phenomenon. * Further- 
more, it sometimes happens, that the phosphoric fires, (of the aurora 
borealis,) breaking forth from all parts of the horizon, from the east, 
the west, and the north, ascend, or seem to ascend, vertically over 
the head of the observer, even to his zenith, and having passed this 
point, they form by their union a brilliant crown, whose centre is sit- 
uated some degrees lower, near the south east, at least in all places 
where this remarkable modification of the phenomenon has been ob- 
served, But if we determine the apparent position of this crown, 
either by the aid of astronomical instruments, or by observing what 
stars are comprehended. within it at the time of its formation, we 
shall find that its centre, in every place where it has been observed, 
is always situated exactly in the direction of that point in the heav- 
ens, to which the magnetic needle is directed, when suspended by 
