368 On the Meteors of 13th November. 
to be very low in the comnengienns: some to come down apparently al- 
most to the house tops. ‘They all had a distinct nucleus, generally 
about half the size of Jupiter, some were larger than this, some smal- 
Jer, and a few were larger than the apparent disc of Jupiter. They 
all left luminous white traces, bands, or tails, which generally appear- 
ed to be, in popular language, about a yard in length ; a few were three 
times and some not more than half this i length. —Their ap- 
pearance continued in most cases from three to four seconds, some 
five, not many, if any, longer than this. There was no appeattany 
of explosion or bursting to the nucleus of any of them 
‘Thave never met with any account of such a phenomenon Linvieiy 
been observed in this country before. Similar phenomena have oc- 
casionally been presented ereee< and have been spoken of as 
‘Showers of Fire, to which indeed this bore a perfect resemblance. 
One instance occurred about eighty years since in South America. 
This was witnessed at Quito, where so many falling stars were seen, 
above the volcano of Gayambo, as led the inhabitants to imagine the 
mountains to be in flames. The people assembled in the plain of 
Exico, and a procession was about to set out, in consequence, from 
the Convent of St. Francis, when they discovered the phenomenon 
to be occasioned by meteors which, as we are told, ran along the 
skies j in all directions. A more extensive and remarkable phenome- 
non of this kind occurred in the night of the = of November, 1799. 
Of this aooanehe as it was seen at Cumana, an accurate account 
has been given by M M. Humboldt and Bonpland. It occurred 
towards the morning when, we are informed thousands of meteors, 
bolides, fire-balls, or —_ stars, as they were variously denominated, 
suceeded each other during four hours. © Their direction was from 
North to Sie They rose in the horizon at east-north-east, follow- 
ed the direction of the meridian, and fell towards the South. ‘There 
was little wind, and this from the East. No trace of clouds was 
seen. There was not a space in the firmanent equal in extent to 
three diameters of the moon which was not filled with burning stars. 
They were of different sizes. They left the luminous traces of from 
five to ten degrees in length. ‘The appearance of these traces con- 
tinued seven or eight seconds. Many of the stars had a very. distinct 
nucleus as _— as the apparent disc of Jupiter. The largest were 
from 1° to 1° 15’ in diameter. ‘They are described as seeming to 
burst as by explosion. Their light was white. They were seen 
by almost all the inhabitants of Cumana, the oldest of whom as- 
serted their remembrance that the great earthquakes of 1766, were 
preceded by similar phenomena. ‘The fishermen in the suburbs said 
the fire work, as they call it, began at one o’clock. It ceased by 
degrees, after four, but some of the meteors were thought to be seen 
a quarter of an hour after sunrise. Such meteors are said to be rarely 
seen there after two in the morning. This phenomenon was observe 
ee some Franciscan Monks near the cataracts of Oronooko, and by 
