On the Meteors of 13th November. 363 
sufficiently to hazard an opinion. The day being a warm and 
damp one, I predicted that similar funguses might spring up within 
twenty four hours; and in fact, two others appeared before the eve- 
pe of the day, whose vegetable character was still more unequivo~ 
1; thus settling the question in my own mind, that there was an en- 
ma mistake in. regard to the meteor described in the place’ above 
mentioned. In justice to Colonel Graves, however, I ought to say, 
that under the circumstances of the case, the mistake was very natu= 
ral, nor should I take the pains to correct it, had I not noticed that 
his account was referred to, as correct, in some of the European 
Journals. 
Amherst College, Mass. Nov. 28, 1833. 
Arr. XIV.—Observations on the Meteors of November 13th, 1833 ; 
~ by Denison Oumsrep, Professor of Mathematics and ore 
Philosophy in Xele College. 
‘The morning of November 13th, 1888, was reciente ore om 
an per of the phenomenon called sHoorine stars, which was 
bably more extensive and magnificent than any similar one hith- 
pi recorded. ‘The morning itself was, in most places where the 
spectacle was witnessed, remarkably beautiful. ‘The firmament was 
unclouded; the air was still and mild; the stars seemed to shine with 
more than their wonted brilliancy, a circumstance arising not merely 
from the unusually transparent state of the atmosphere, but in part no 
doubt from the dilated state of the pupil of the eye of the spectator, 
emerging suddenly from a dark room; the large constellation Ori- 
on in the southwest, followed by Syrius and Procyon, formed a stri- 
king counterpart to the planets Saturn and Venus which were shining 
in the southeast ; and, in short, the observer of the starry heavens, 
would rarely find so much to reward his gaze, as the sky of this morn- 
ing presented, independently of the magnificent =e which con- 
stituted its peculiar distinction. 
Probably no celestial phenomenon has ever occurred in this country, 
since its first settlement, which was viewed with so much admiration 
and delight by one class of spectators, or with so much astonishment 
and fear by another class. For some time after the occurrence, the 
