THE NOVEMBER METEORS. lol 



are apparently shorter by perspective, some appearing simply as 

 stars with a brushlike or nebulous surrounding. When the 

 radiant is near the horizon the trails of course appear longer. 



HISTORIC. 



A few words with reference to previous displays may be 

 interesting. There was a grand display in 1799, when Humboldt 

 and Bonpland were travelling in Cumana, in South America, and 

 Humboldt says that on November i ith thousands of bolides and 

 shooting stars appeared during four hours. Bonpland related 

 that from the beginning of the phenomenon there was not a 

 space in the firmament that was not filled every instant with 

 falling stars or bolides. He also says that the meteors left 

 luminous traces or phosphorescent bands behind them. The 

 natives said that the fireworks began at one o'clock. The 

 phenomenon ceased by degrees at four o'clock. Bonpland adds 

 " we still saw some shortly after sunrise ; " of course he meant 

 the larger kind, chiefly bolides. 



This shower of 1799 was observed at many widely distant 

 stations. It was reported from N. and S. America, Greenland, 

 the Gulf of Mexico, and several places in Germany. The writer 

 from the Gulf of Mexico gives his impressions as follows : 

 " The phenomenon was grand and awful. The whole heavens 

 appeared as if illumined with sky rockets, which disappeared 

 only by the light of the sun after daybreak. The meteors, which 

 at any one instant appeared as numerous as the stars, flew in 

 all possible directions. They were all more or less inclined 

 towards the earth, and some of them descended perpendicularly 

 over the vessel I was in, so that I felt constant dread of their 

 falling on us." 



In the present century the sho\ver in 1833 is perhaps the 

 most notable, when Dr. Lardner records that meteors were so 

 numerous as to attract particular notice. 



It was also well seen in 1831 and 1832. I mention this so that 

 too much dependence may not be placed on the calculated 

 maximum, for the previous and following years may, owing to 



