shadow, and at heights far exceeding those at which the atmosphere can be 

 supposed capable of supporting combustion, it is manifest that their light is not 

 reflected from the sun, they must therefore be self-luminous, which is contrary 

 to every analogy of the solar system. Fourthly, if masses of solid matter ap- 

 proached so near the earth as many of the shooting-stars do, some of them 

 would inevitably be attracted to it, but of the thousands of shooting-stars which 

 have been observed, there is no authenticated instance of any one having ac- 

 tually reached the earth. Fifthly, instead of the meteors being attracted to 

 the earth, some of them are observed actually to rise upward and to describe 

 orbits which are convex toward the earth, a circumstance of which, on the 

 present hypothesis, it seems difficult to give any rational explanation. 



From the difficulties attending every hypothesis which has hitherto been 

 proposed, it may be inferred how very little real knowledge has yet been ob- 

 tained respecting the nature of the shooting-stars. It is certain that they ap- 

 pear at great altitudes above the earth, and that they move with prodigious 

 velocity, but everything else respecting them is involved in profound mystery. 

 From the whole of the facts, M. Wartmann thinks that the most rational con- 

 clusion we can adopt is, that the meteors probably owe their origin to the dis- 

 engagement of electricity, or of some analogous matter, which takes place in 

 the celestial regions on every occasion in which the conditions necessary for 

 the production of the phenomena are renewed. 



The presumption in favor of the cosmical origin of the shooting stars are 

 chiefly founded on their periodical recurrence at certain epochs of the year, 

 and the extraordinary displays of the phenomena in various years on the nights 

 of the 12th or 13th of November. 



We shall here merely-state the principal circumstances accompanying those 

 of 1799, which put the notion of a lunar origin entirely out of the question. 



On the morning of the 12th of November, 1799, before sunrise, Humboldt 

 and Bonpland, then on the coast of Mexico, were witnesses to a remarkable 

 exhibition of shooting stars arid fire-balls. They filled the part of the heavens 

 extending from due east to about 30 toward the north and south. They rose 

 from the horizon between the east and northeast points, described arcs of un- 

 equal magnitude, and fell toward the south ; some of them rose to the height 

 of 40, all above 25 or 30. Many of them appeared to explode, but the 

 larger number disappeared without emitting sparks ; some had a nucleus ap- 

 parently equal to Jupiter. This most remarkable spectacle was seen at the 

 same time in Camana, on the borders of Brazil, in French Guiana, in the chan- 

 nel of Bahama, on the continent of North America, in Labrador, and in Green- 

 land, and even at Carlsruhe, Halle, and other places in Germany, many shoot- 

 ing stars were seen on the same day. At Nain and HorTenthal in Labrador, 

 and at Neuhernhut and Lichtenau in Greenland, the meteors seem to have ap- 

 peared the nearest to the earth. At Nain they fell toward all points of the 

 horizon, and some of them had a diameter which the spectators estimated at 

 half an ell. (See Humboldt's Recueil des Voyages, &c., Vol. II.) 



A not less stupendous exhibition took place in North America on the night 

 of the 12th of November, 1833. In 1834 similar phenomena occurred on the 

 night of the 13th of November; but on this occasion the meteors were of a 

 smaller size. In 1835, 1836, and 1838, shooting stars were observed on the 

 night of November 13, in different parts of the world, but though diligently 

 looked for on the same nights in 1839 and 1840, they do not appear to- have 

 been more numerous than on other nights about the same season of the year. 



The second great meteoric epoch is the 10th of August, first pointed out 



by M. Quetelet, and although no displays similar to those of the November 



\ period have been witnessed on this night, there are more instances of the re- 



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