AEROLITES. 119 



and 13th of November, 1833, the fire-balls and shooting stars 

 all emerged from one and the same quarter of the heavens, 

 namely, in the vicinity of the star y in the constellation Leo, 

 and did not deviate from this point, although the star changed 

 its apparent height and azimuth during the time of the observ- 

 ation. Such an independence of the, Earth's rotation shows 

 that the luminous body must have reached our atmosphere from 

 witlwut. According to Encke's computation* of the whole 



* Eucke, \i\Vo^§,end., Annalen, bd. xxxiii. (1834), s. 213. Arago, 

 in the Annuaire. for 1836, p. 291. Two letters which I wrote to Ben- 

 zenberg, May 19 and October 22, 1837, on the conjectural precession 

 of the nodes in the orbit of periodical falls of shooting stai's. (Benzen- 

 berg's Sternsch., s. 207 and 209.) Olbers subsequently adopted this 

 opinion of the gradual retardation of the November phenomenon. 

 {Astron. Nachr., 1838, No. 372, s. 180.) If I may venture to combine 

 two of the falls of shooting stars mentioned by the Arabian writers 

 with the epochs found by Boguslawski for the fourteenth century, I 

 obtain the following more or less accordant elements of the movements 

 of the nodes : 



In Oct., 902, on the night in which King Ibrahim ben Ahmed died, 

 there fell a heavy shower of shooting stars, ** like a fiery rain ;" and 

 this year was, therefore, called the year of stars. (Conde, Hist, de la 

 Domin. de los Arabes, p. 346.) 



On the 19th of Oct., 1202, the stars were in motion all night. " They 

 fell like locusts." {Comptes Rendus, 1837, t. i., p. 294 ; and Fryehn, in 

 the Bull, de V Academie de St. PHershourg, t. iii., p. 308.') 



On the 21st Oct., O.S., 1366, " die sequente post festum XL ynillia Vir- 

 ginum ab hora matutiyia usque ad Tioram primam visce sunt quasi stellce 

 de coilo cadere contiinio, et in tanta multitudine, quod nemo narrare suf 

 jicit.'''' This remarkable notice, of which we shall speak more fully in 

 the subsequent part of this w^ork, was found by the younger Von Bo- 

 guslawski, in Benesse (de Horowic) de Weitmil or Weithmiil, Chron- 

 icon Ecclesice Pragensis, p. 389. This chronicle may also be found in 

 the second part of ScHptores rerum Bghemicarum, by Pelzel and Do- 

 browsky, 1784. (Schum., Astr. Nachr., Dec, 1839.) 



On the night between the 9th and 10th of November, 1787, many fall- 

 ing stars were observed at Manheira, Southern Germany, by Hemmer. 

 (Kamtz, Meteor., th. iii., s. 237.) 



After midnight, on the 12th of November, 1799, occurred the extra- 

 ordinary fall of stars at Cumana, which Bonpland and myself have de 

 scribed, and which was observed over a great part of the earth. (Relat. 

 Hist., t. i., p. 519-527.) 



Between the 12th and 13th of November, 1822, shooting stars, inter- 

 mingled with fire-balls, were seen in large numbers by Kloden, at 

 Potsdam. (Gilbei-t's Ann., bd. Ixxii., s. 291.) 



On the I3th of November, 1831, at 4 o'clock in the morning, a great 

 shower of falling stars was seen by Captain Berard, on the Spanish 

 coast, near Carthagena del Levante. {Annuaire, 1836, p. 297.) 



In the night between the 12th and 13tli of November, 1833, occurred 

 the phenomenon so admirably described by Professor Olmsted, iu 

 North America. 



In the night of the 13-14th of November, 1834, a similar fall of shoot- 



