On the Meteors of 13th November. 389 
3. Numper.—The whole number of meteors that fell towards 
the earth cannot be accurately estimated, but it must have been im- 
menscly great. Few accurate attempts appear to have been made 
to estimate the number of meteors that fell within a given time. It 
is well known that the number of the stars is, by most people, great- 
ly overrated ; and, for a similar reason, the number of the meteors 
was doubtless generally estimated much too high, some describing 
them as shai by “ thousands” at a time, and some even by 
“ millions 
The writer in the Boston Centinel, whose Siete we have 
inserted at length on page 366, appears to have made as exact an esti- 
mate as any we have met with, although we think it considerably too 
low. He supposes the number of meteors which fell during the 
fifteen minutes before 6 o’clock to have been 8660. Consequently 
they must have fallen at the rate of 34,640 an hour, making for 
three hours, 103,920. The observer mentions that the number had 
become fewer at the time of counting, in consequence, probably of 
the advancing light of day. Reckoning, therefore, from 12, till 7 
o’clock, we may safely double the foregoing amount, making the 
deoropnte number of meteors 207,840,—an estimate which probably 
does not exceed, though it may fall very far short of the whole num- 
ber which were visible at Boston. On the supposition that the me- 
teors seen at places remote from each other, were not the same, the 
entire number that descended towards the earth, must have been in- 
definitely great. 
- ‘The meteors however, were not uniformly distributed over the sky, 
but appear, at some places of observation, to have been peculiarly 
abundant in particular parts of the heavens. 
(1.) The phenomenon was most ee to the south and west of 
Lynchburg, at an elevation of from 30° to 60°. (F. G. Smith.) 
-(2.) The greatest number seemed to fall in a wee of the hori- 
zon north and south (east?) of northeast. (Geo. Courier.) . 
(3.) Mr. Palmer, found the number of meteors north of the ap- 
parent radiating point much greater than on the south side. See 
p. 385. 
4, Varireties.—The meteors exhibited three distinct varieties : 
the first consisting of phosphoric lines, apparently described by a 
point; the second, of large fire balls, that at intervals, darted along 
the sky, leaving trains that occasionally remained for some time ; 
the third, of Zuminous bodies that continued for a long time in view. 
