402 On the Meteors of 13th November. 
the appearance, as observed by the ship Hilah, on St. George’s 
Bank, is represented to have been as splendid as at New York. 
Off Bermuda, likewise, the ship Phoenix, of New London, (as we 
learn from Messrs. Billings’s, the owners,) witnessed such a display 
as would correspond to the appearance at New Haven.—Accounts 
received from London, dated as early as the 13th of November, 
make no mention of the meteors; whence we infer that they were 
not seen there, and probably not in any part of Europe. 
It is hardly possible to persuade ourselves that two concurrent phe- 
nomena, both so remarkable as the change of weather and the falling 
stars, were independent of each other; but it may prove a difficult 
point to decide what was the nature of this connexion; whether, as 
some have hinted in observations already before the sahilic, the me- 
teors were occasioned by the change of weather, in consequence of 
the highly electrical state of the atmosphere which frequently follows 
such a change; or whether higher portions of the atmosphere de- 
scended bringing the meteors along with them; or whether the me- 
teors themselves, by disturbing the eqailisaom of the atmosphere, 
caused air from colder regions to flow into the parts where they 
prevailed ; or, finally, whether some common and remote cause is 
to be sought for, that gave origin to both the change of weather 
and the meteors. 
2. There is much indefiniteness in most of the accounts we have 
seen, respecting the time when the phenomenon commenced. As 
** shooting stars” are not uncommon in a clear evening, they would 
not attract particular attention until their number became much great- 
er than usual. All accounts agree that the phenomenon advanced 
very gradually, but the time when the meteors first arrested attention 
by their uncommon frequency, is variously noted. In places differing 
many degrees of longitude from each other, as New Haven, (Con.) 
and Macon, (Geo.), the time of commencing is fixed as early as 11 
o’clock ; while at many places between these, the beginning was 
much later; indicating that the descent of meteors, at a given stage 
of their exhibition, was not equally copious upon all places lying in 
the same meridian. 
A more accurate point of time is that at which the phenomenon 
reached its maximum. ‘This was at places very remote from each 
other, as Brunswick (Maine) and Cuyahoga Falls (Ohio), about 4 
o’clock,—a point of time which is also noted as the most remarkable 
at places situated variously between these. This fact, therefore, ap- 
