36 FALLING STARS, 



in mines, in marshy places, and near stagnating 

 waters. They consist of vapours, which, taking 

 fire, appear bright so long as they burn. They 

 move about with a dancing motion, and have 

 sometimes caused serious accidents, by misleading 

 persons who have followed them in the dark, 

 under the idea that they were lanterns carried 

 by passengers. 



Balls of" fire sometimes descend from the upper 

 region of the atmosphere. When they fall, they 

 look precisely like stars dropping from the sky ; 

 they shoot along with great rapidity, and some- 

 times leave behind them, in the air, a reddish 

 line, which gradually disappears. Sometimes 

 their motion is attended with a hissing sound, 

 and they burst with a loud noise. Their light 

 is of dazzling brightness. They have been often 

 observed, but the nature and cause of them are 

 not satisfactorily known. 



Sometimes at night there is to be seen, in the 

 northern quarter of the heavens, a bright light, 

 like the morning aurora, or day-break, from 

 which rays issue, and which spreads itself by 

 degrees over a great part of the firmament. 

 The whole of the heavens at length appear quite 

 red and fiery, and exhibit a most beautiful sight. 

 This appearance is called the northern light, 

 or aurora borealis ; and it is, like lightning, 

 an effect of electricity. It has never done mis 

 chief of any kind. 



