A FALLING STAR. 215 



The track of this meteor may be taken as fairly repre- 

 sentative of the course pursued by those more splendid 

 shooting stars which are often called fire-balls. They 

 move, however, in every direction. They come from the 

 east, and from the west, from the north, and from the 

 south. There is no hour of the night at which they have 

 not occasionally been seen. Even in daylight it has hap- 

 pened not once or twice, but on several occasions, that a 

 brilliant meteor has forced itself upon our astonished 

 notice. They generally first make their appearance at a 

 height which is between 50 and 100 miles above the 

 ground. They hurry down their inclined path, but gene- 

 rally become extinguished while still at least 20 miles 

 aloft. In their more ambitious flights meteors have 

 been known to span a kingdom. Nor are even greater 

 strides unrecorded. The length of a continent may be 

 Compared with the track of that terrific meteor of 5th 

 September, 1868, which broke into visibility at a great 

 height above the Black Sea, and had not expended its 

 stupendous energy until it passed over the smiling vine- 

 yards of France. 



