AEROLITES. 



139 



village amid tlie savannahs of the province of Varinas ; and the Franciscan monks stationed 

 near the entrance of the Oronoco, also observed this shower of asteroids, which appears to 

 have been visible, more or less, over an area of several thousand miles, from Greenland to 

 the equator, and from the lonely deserts of South America to Weimar in Germany. About 

 thirty years previous, at the city of Quito, a similar event occurred. So great a number 

 of falling stars were seen in a part of the sky above the volcano of Cayambaro, that the 

 mountain itself was thought at first to be on fire. The sight lasted more than an hour. 

 The people assembled in the plain of Exida, where a magnificent view presented itself of 

 the highest summits of the Cordilleras. A procession was already on the point of setting 

 out from the convent of Saint Francis, when it was perceived that the blaze on the horizon 

 was caused by fiery meteors, which ran along the sky in all directions, at the altitude of 

 twelve or thirteen degrees. In Canada, in the years 1814 and 1819, the stellar showers 

 were noticed, and in the autumn of 1818 on the North Sea, when, in the language of one 

 of the observers, the surrounding atmosphere seemed enveloped in one expansive ocean 

 of fire, exhibiting tlie appearance of another Moscow in flames. In the former cases, a 

 residuum of dust was deposited upon the surface of the waters, on the roofs of buildings, 

 and on other objects. The deposition of particles of matter of a ruddy colour has frequently 

 followed the descent of aerolites ; and may explain popular stories of the sky having rained 

 blood. The next exhibition upon a great scale of the falling stars occurred on the 13th of 

 November, 1831, and was seen off the coasts of Spain and in the Ohio country. This 

 was followed by another in the ensuing year at exactly the same time. Captain Hammond, 

 then in the Red Sea, off Mocha, in the ship Restitution, gives the following account of 

 it : " From one o'clock A.M. till after daylight, there was a very unusual phenomenon 

 in the heavens. It appeared like meteors bursting in every direction. The sky at the 

 time was clear, the stars and moon bright, with streaks of light and thin white clouds 

 interspersed in the sky. On landing in the morning, I inquired of the Arabs if they had 

 noticed the above. They said they had been observing it most of the night. I asked 

 them if ever the like had appeared before ? The oldest of them replied that it had not." 

 The shower was witnessed from the Red Sea westward to the Atlantic, and from Switzer 

 land to the Mauritius. 



"We now come to by far the most splendid display on record ; which, as it was the third in 



