THE HAMILTON ASSOCIATION. 63 



" Oft shall thou see, 'ere brooding storms arise, 

 Star after star glide headlong down the skies ; 

 And where they shot, long trails of lingering light 

 Sweep far behind, and gild the shades of night." 



To this day we often hear it said, that the wind will blow to. 

 morrow from a certain quarter, as the stars fall in that direction. 



In some old volumes of the "Gentleman's Magazine," especi- 

 ally those of 1793 and 1776, are some curious notions respecting 

 shooting stars, and quite a controversy on a gelatinous or jelly-like 

 substance they were supposed to deposit on the grass or trees, where 

 they fell, called by the writers " star shot " or " star jelly," and ex- 

 plained by Withering as "tramella nostoc," 



One other anecdote of ignorance in this direction. The great 

 November meteoric shower of 1833 was witnessed by a female ser- 

 vant, a new arrival from Erin, in South Carolina. Rising early to 

 fodder cattle, she saw thousands of these meteors, till daylight 

 stopped the display, but thought nothing remarkable of it, stating 

 when talked to afterwards about it, that she paid no heed to it, as 

 she thought that was perhaps the way the stars were put out every 

 morning in this country." 



The phenomenon of shooting or falling stars, or meteors, as they 

 are more generally styled, is now acknowledged to have existed since 

 the formation of the solar system, long anterior to the existence 

 of man. On any clear evening, it is estimated a watchful ob- 

 server may see on an average two shooting stars every five 

 minutes, and at certain periods of the year in such abundance 

 as to have obtained the name of "meteoric showers." These 

 apparently emanate from a certain constellation, or from a point 

 of space known as a " radiant " represented by some certain con- 

 stellation, whilst single meteors appear to come from no particular 

 point, but move in all directions, and from every part of the sky. 

 These are styled " sporadic." In their normal condition these wander- 

 ing bodies, before they reach our vision, are known as "meteoroids," 

 and in their ovm proper orbit are never visible from the earth. They 

 are then regular circumsolar bodies, obeying the laws of motion 

 and gravitation as rigidly as the planets. Striking^ or rather enter- 

 ing, our atmosphere at a speed of 48 miles per second, they at once 

 become self-luminous from the heat engendered by friction with the 

 tmospheric medium, and the arrested motion producing a sudden 



