CHAP. 3. OP METEORS. 117 



Fig. 6. seem to be lost by dispersion; they 

 appear to fly off from all points, increasing in 

 breadth as they become fainter, till at last they 

 cease to be distinguishable. They are generally 

 seen in the intervals of showery weather, and 

 most prevalent before the occurrence of high 

 wind : of which they have been considered by 

 Aratus, Virgil, and other writers as a certain 

 prognostick.* These kind of Meteors abounded, 

 on the night of 10th August, 1811, after a 

 showery day. I have thought that their tails 

 were the result rather of some gas set on fire 

 by the meteor in its passage, than of any of the 

 luminous substance of the Meteor left behind 



uifoXVKy.ivwvra,t 

 xsivoif avTTjV oSov ep^ousvoio 

 TlveviiaTo;, &c. Arat. Dios. 107- 

 Saepe etiam Stellas vento impendente videbis 

 Praecipites coelo labi, noctisque per uihbram 

 Flammarum longos a tergo albescere tractus. 



Georgic. lib. i. 365. 



Pliny also remarks, " Si volitare plures stellae videbuntur 

 quo feruntur albescentes, veutos ex his partibus nunciabunt." 

 Plin. Hist. Nat. xviii. 35. 



Compare also Lucretius de Rer. Nat. ii. 208. Theophrastus 

 observed of old: "QQsv av affzcsg StotTrujiri rfoXXu avsp.ov svrvQsv 

 ftx.y SI TfavIap/oSgy o/xo*a;;, rfoXXa, itvtv^oHa, a-r/fAziVJvrl. 



Thcoph. dc Kigii. Vent. 



