On the Meteors of 13th November. 369 
others at Marao, one hundred and seventy-four leagues from Cumana, 
by some of whom, as was afterwards found, the day had been mark- 
ed in their ritual, and by others had been noted by the nearest church 
festival ; they all compared it to a beautiful firework. Indeed this 
phenomenon was ascertained to have been observed on an extent o 
the globe, equal to 60 deg. of latitude and 91 deg. of longitude, at 
the equator in South America, at Labrador, and in Germany.” _ 
3. Phenomena as observed at West Point, (Lat. 41° 24’ N., 
Long. 73° 57’ W.,) by Mr. ALexanper C. Twinine, Civil Engineer. 
* West Point, Noy. 15th, 1833. 
To Pror. Otmstep. 
Dear Sir,—I presume that you will be glad to receive from various 
quarters, observations upon the brilliant and wonderful phenomenon 
which appeared in the skies, on the morning of Wednesday the 13th. 
It was not my fortune to witness it from the beginning; but I observ- 
ed it for more than an hour, from a few minutes past five o’clock, 
by the watch, till the morning light made it no longer visible. ‘There 
is little doubt that it had been in progress for hours, before my first 
‘glimpse of it. I shall describe only those things which passed un- 
der my own notice. ; ; : . 
The air was very clear; and there was a perceptible and con- 
stant light like twilight, given out from the numerous luminous bo- 
dies which were in motion in the sky above. Of these bodies, a 
host of which were darting out on every side and at every altitude, 
the greater multitude were like stars suddenly lighted up in a state 
of rapid motion shooting a certain distance and gone in a second; 
leaving where they had passed a luminous trace, resembling common- 
lya filament of white or yellowish white cloud, of sensible breadth 
in the middle, but tapering to a point at each extremity like two very 
acute triangles united at their bases; and these luminous traces, like 
dissolving nebule, gradually faded and were indiscernible after a few 
seconds. A second class of luminous bodies, larger in diameter but 
equally transient in continuance, and Jess frequent, shot along like 
falling lamps, followed by a small short and pointed flame so brilliant 
as to pain the sight for an instant. In sensible magnitude these might 
be compared to the morning star, and in intensity of brilliance to 
lightning. Occasionally, a bright flash like moderate or distant light- 
ning, indicated the developement of a still larger body. One which 
fell vertically to the west of north I-had in full view. It was a deep 
red fiery ball of perhaps one fifth the moon’s apparent diameter, 
which descended down to the visible horizon, and left its path of a 
few degrees in extent luminous and striped with prismatic colors ;— 
my impression is that ene edge through all its length was red, and 
the other a greenish blue. It was octasionally the fact that prismat- 
ic colors were developed in the trace of those smaller bodies which I 
Vou. XXV.—No. 2. 47 
