METEORS. 



agreeably warm. The sky was serene, excepting very 

 near the horizon, where a haziness just prevented the 

 appearance of the stars. A narrow, rugged and oblong 

 cloud stood on the northwest side of the heavens, reach- 

 ing from the extremity of the haziness, which rose as 

 high as .18 or 20 degrees, and stretching itself for several 

 degrees towards the east in a direction nearly parallel to 

 the horizon. It was a little below this cloud, and conse- 

 quently in the hazy part of the atmosphere, about the north 

 by west half west point of the compass that this luminous 

 meteor was first perceived. Some flashes of lambent 

 light, much like the Aurora Borealis, were first observed 

 on the Northern part of the heavens, which were soon 

 perceived to proceed from a roundish luminous body, 

 nearly as big in diameter as the semi-diameter of the 

 moon, and almost stationary in the above-mentioned point 

 of the heavens. It ^vas then about twenty rive minutes 

 after nine o'clock in the evening. The ball at first ap- 

 peared of a faint bluish light, perhaps from being just 

 kindled, or from its appearing through the haziness ; but it 

 gradually increased in light, and soon began to move, at 

 lirst ascending above the horizon in an oblique direction 

 towards the east. Jts course in this direction was very 

 short, perhaps of five or six degrees ; after which it direct- 

 ed its course towards the east, and moving in a direction 

 nearly parallel to the horizon, reached as far as the south- 

 east by east point, where it finally disappeared. The whole 

 duration of the meteor, was half a minute or rather less, 

 and the altitude of its track, seemed to be about 25 degrees 

 above the horizon. A short time after the beginning of 

 its motion, the luminous body passed behind the above- 

 mentioned cloud, without actually seeing the body from 

 which it proceeded for about the sixth or at most the fifth 

 part of its track ; but as soon as the meteor emerged 

 from behind the cloud its light was prodigious. Every 

 object appeared very distinct ; the whole face of the 

 country, in that beautiful prospect before the terrace, be- 

 ing instantly illuminated. At this moment the body of 

 the meteor appeared of an oblong form ; but it presently 

 acquired a tail, and soon after it parted with several small 

 bodies, each having a tail or elongation ; and all moving 



