BECT. xxxvii.] SHOOTING STAES. 447 



sphere of the earth's attraction, and revolve about it like a 

 satellite. These bodies, impelled either by the direction of 

 the primitive impulse, or by the disturbing action of the 

 sun, might ultimately penetrate the earth's atmosphere, 

 and arrive at its surface ; but it is much more probable that 

 they are asteroids revolving about the sun, and diverted 

 from their course by some disturbing force ; at all events, they 

 must have a common origin, from the uniformity we may 

 almost say identity of their chemical composition. 



Shooting stars and meteors differ from aerolites in several 

 respects. They burst from the clear 'azure sky, and, darting 

 along the heavens, are extinguished without leaving any 

 residuum except a vapour-like smoke, and generally without 

 noise. Their parallax shows them to be very high in the 

 atmosphere, sometimes even beyond its supposed limit, and 

 the direction of their motion is for the most part diametrically 

 opposite to the motion of the earth in its orbit. The 

 astonishing multitudes of shooting stars and fire balls that 

 have appeared at stated periods over the American continent, 

 and other parts of the globe, warrant the conclusion that 

 there is either a nebula, or that there are myriads of bodies 

 revolving in groups round the sun which only become visible 

 when inflamed by entering our atmosphere. 



One of these nebulae or groups seems to meet the earth in 

 its annual revolution on the 12th and 13th of November. 



On the morning of the 12th of November, 1799, thousands 

 of shooting stars, mixed with large meteors, illuminated the 

 heavens for many hours over the whole continent of America, 

 from Brazil to Labrador : it extended to Greenland, and even 

 Germany. Meteoric showers were seen off the coast of 

 Spain, and in the Ohio country, on the morning of the 13th of 

 November, 1831 ; and during many hours on the morning of 

 the 13th November, 1832, prodigious multitudes of shooting 

 stars and meteors fell at Mocha on the Red Sea, in the 

 Atlantic, in Switzerland, and at many places in England. 

 But by much the most splendid meteoric shower on record 



