350 



METEORS. 



form. Some of these marshy meteors appear to change 

 their situation, and dance about from place to place. 

 They are composed of inflammable air, which is continu- 

 ally evaporating in the low stagnant grounds where these 

 phenomena make their appearance. The earth is con- 

 tinually exhaling hydrogen gas, phosphorus, carbonic 

 acid gas, and occasionally sulphurous vapors. ..These 

 gases readily inflame from a great variety of natural 

 causes, to which they are perpetually exposed. They 

 may be inflamed by electricity, or by heat generated 

 during the decomposition of animal or vegetable materi- 

 als. Now this mass of gas being on fire will burn till its 

 inflammable principle is destroyed. In proportion to its 

 greater or less degree of combustible power, it will pour 

 forth a greater or less degree of light. From the levity 

 of the burning vapor, it will wave to and fro, in the cur- 

 rents of the air, like any gas light exposed to the wind ; 

 sometimes flaming higher and again sinking down to a 

 feeble flicker ; thus constantly moving before the specta- 

 tor, and assuming different forms and colors, according 

 to the varying density of the fog through which it is seen. 

 A friend of mine, says Rev. John Mitchell, returning from 

 abroad late in the evening, had to cross a strip of marsh. 

 As he approached the causeway he noticed a light to- 

 wards the opposite end, which he supposed to be a lantern 

 in the hand of some person whom he was about to meet. 

 It proved however to be a solitary flame, a few inches 

 above the marsh, at the distance of a few feet from the 

 edge of the causeway. He stopped some time to look at 

 it, and was strongly tempted notwithstanding the wariness 

 of the place, to get nearer to it, for the purpose of closer 

 examination. It was evidently a vapor issuing from the 

 mud, and becoming ignited, or at least luminous, in con- 

 tact with the air. It exhibited a flickering appearance, 

 like that of a candle expiring in its socket; alternately 

 burning with a large flame, and then sinking to a small 

 taper ; and occasionally for a moment becoming quite 

 extinct. It constantly appeared over the same spot. 

 This same gentleman remarks that the locomotive pow- 

 er with which these meteors seem to be endowed, is 

 probably apparent only, not real. As the light dwindles 

 away, it will seem to move from you, and with a velocity 



