e 
Star-Showers of Former Times. — 
» (35.) A. D. 1743. October 4. “A clear Night, great Shooting 
of Stars between 9 and 10 a Clock, all shot from S. W. to N. E. 
(Qu. N. E. to 8S. W.] one like a comet in the Meridian very large, 
and like Fire, with a long broad Train of Fire after it, which 
lasted several minutes; after that was a Train likea Row of thick 
small Stars for tw aty Minutes together, which dipt N.”—Gen- 
eral Chronological Hist. of the Air, Weather, §'c. [by Dr. Thos. 
Short.] Lond. 1749. 8vo. Vol. II, p. 313. 
The dates of the catalogue thus far, are of. the Jalian style : 
those which follow, are of the Gregorian.* 
(36.) A. D. 1799. November 12. A great shower of shooting 
stars, seen chiefly between midnight and morning, in varions parts 
of Europe and America. The light of the moon (then at the full,) 
greatly impaired the splendor of the display.—EUicott’s Journal. 
4to. 1814. p. 248.— Humboldt: Voyage, tom. 4. liv. 4. ch. 10. 
8v0.— Gilbert’s Ann. der Physik, Bd. 6: 191,12: 217,15: 109. 
(37.) A. D. 1803. April 20. A great shower of shooting stars 
after midnight, seen in the’ northern and middle portions of the 
United. States, Sky clear and moon only a few hours before the 
change— This Jour. Vol. 36, p. 358. 5 
(38.) A. D. 1832, November 13, An»extensive shower of 
shooting stars seen between midnight and morning, in various 
and widely distant parts of the globe. The moon (five days past 
the full ;) much diminished the brilliancy of the spectacle —B7b. 
Univ. de Genéve. 1832; t: 3: 189.++Comptes Rend. v1. 562. 
(39.) A. D, 1933. November 13. A great shower of shooting 
stars seen between midnight and morning in various parts of 
*In this catalogue I intend to confine myself to showers ‘of shooting stars, and 
omit many instances, occurring chiefly in August, in which meteors have been 
— in une common, but no ot very — numbers. . Of these met disp] 
hetalor: in his Catalogue des Principales Apparitions des Etoiles Filantes, (to. 
Bruxelles, 1339, ) m med be well to restrict the term meteoric elt to those in- 
ces where the m appear at a rate not less than 1000 per rt hou 
tIn E. H. Burritt’ s te of the Heavens, (12mo. 1838, p. 16 i ) it is said, 
“a shower of stars exactly similar took place in Canada between the 3d and 4th of 
July, 1814, and another at Montreal, in Nov. 1819.’ “ Another was hierar in 
the autumn of 1818, in the North Sea, &c.”’ Probably neither of these 
“Was a shower of shooting stars.. On the 3d and 4th of July, 1814, there fll on the 
tiver St. Lawren nee, Canada, a quantity of dust or ashes, the air being very hazy 
and smoky.— Tilloch’s Phil. Ma ag. Lond. 44: 91, That of 1818, was doubtless a 
display of the aurora borealis. 
