CHAP. 3. . I. OF METEORS. 121 



that of the ascending column of phosphorific 

 matter. This is agreeable to the popular 

 notion, that many of these Meteors shoot 

 towards the quarter from which wind will sub- 

 sequently blow. Because if, as I have shown, 

 the wind often changes first above, its current 

 may give an inclination to the ascending column 

 of phosphorific matter ; and the burning star, 

 moving back in an opposite direction, would 

 point to the coming wind. This may often be 

 the case ; but I have observed that these stars 

 frequently shoot along in different directions : 

 a circumstance which may be supposed to arise 

 from their previous columns of phosphorific 

 matter being inclined differently by different 

 currents, which, by experiments with air bal- 

 loons, I have found to exist often in the atmos- 

 phere at the same time. If these columns of 

 phosphorific matter ascend from the earth when 

 there are different currents of air in the atmos- 

 phere, it may be questioned, how it happens 

 that the motion of the falling Meteor is so 

 straight, and why, on the contrary, it is not 

 bent at angles, as its motion is retrograde to 

 that of an ascending column of gas, which may 

 have passed through, and received an inclination 

 from, several currents of air ? Possibly, it 



