582 COSMOS. 



December: 9th-12tli; but in 1798, according to 

 Brandes' observation, December the 6th-7th ; Herrick, 

 in Newhaven, 1838, Dec. 7th-8th; Heis, 1847, De- 

 cember 8th and 10th. 



the llth and 12th of November, which Bonpland and I have 

 described (Voyage aux Regions Equinoxiales, liv. iv. chap, x, 

 torn. iv. p. 34, 53rd ed. 8vo.), lasted from two to four o'clock 

 in the morning. Upon the whole journey which we made 

 through the forest region of the Orinoco southwards, as far 

 as Rio Negro, we found that the enormous fall of meteors 

 had been seen by the missionaries, and in some cases recorded 

 in the church-books. In Labrador and Greenland, it threw 

 the Esquimaux into a state of utter amazement as far as 

 Lichtenau and New Herrnhut (Lat. 64 14'). At Itterstadt, 

 near Weimar, the pastor Zeising saw the same phenomenon 

 that was at the same time visible under the equator, and near 

 the north polar circle in America. Since the periodicity of the 

 St. Laurentius stream, August 10th, did not attract general 

 attention until long after the November period had, I have 

 carefully placed together all the considerable and accurately- 

 observed Mis of shooting stars on the 12th-13th November 

 known to me up to 1846. There are 15 : 1799, 1818, 1822, 

 1823; 1831-1839 every year; 1841 and 1846. I exclude 

 those falls of meteors which differ by one or two days : such 

 as those of the 10th of November, 1787. 8th November. 1813. 

 Such a periodicity closely connected with individual days is 

 so much the more wonderful, as bodies of such a small mass 

 are easily exposed to disturbances, and the breadth of the 

 ring in which the meteors are supposed to be contained may 

 surround the Earth for some days. The most brilliant No- 

 vember streams took place in 1799. 1831, 1833, 1834. (In 

 my description of the meteor of 1799, the largest fire-ball 

 has ascribed to it a diameter of 1 and 1^, when it should 

 be 1 and \\ lunar diameter?) This is also the place to 

 mention the fire-ball which attracted the special attention of 

 the director of the observatory at Toulouse, M. Petit, and 

 whose revolution round the Earth he has calculated. (Compies 

 Rendiis, 9 Aout, 1847; and Schum. Astr. Nadir. No. 701, 

 p. 71.) 



