358 Meteoric Shower of April "iO, 1803. 



served over the mountains in the west ; various shooting stars 

 appeared ; the firmament was completely free of clouds, &c." — 

 Edinb. Ann. Reg. for 1809. ^vo, vol. 2, pt. 2, p. 509. 



(4.) In an anonymous table of the dates at which unusual 

 numbers of meteors have been seen, contained in the London 

 Monthly Chronicle, (vol. i, No. 9, Nov. 1838,) the sixth of De- 

 cember, 1826, is given. What authority there is for it, I do not 

 know. The table seems to be derived chiefly from a similar one 

 published by M. Gtuetelet, with additions from various papers 

 which have appeared in this Journal. 



New Haven, Conn., May 15, 1839. 



Art. XI. — On the Meteoric Shoioer of April 20, 1803, with an 

 accoutit of obsef^vations made on ajid about the 20th April, 

 1839 ; by Edward C. Herrick, Rec. Sec. Conn. Acad. 



It is generally known that in April, 1803, a remarkable shower 

 of shooting stars was witnessed throughout a large part of the 

 United States. In order that an account of this interesting event 

 may be placed on permanent record, I have collected for this Jour- 

 nal the following statements concerning it. 



As hypotheses which I do not credit, are often interwoven with 

 the testimony cited, I take occasion here to express my entire dis- 

 sent from the suppositions that shooting stars, whether single or 

 in showers, are connected, either as cause or eflect, with earth- 

 quakes, pestilence, electrical discharges, winds, seasons of heat or 

 cold, or any particular sort of weather ; or that the movements of 

 these meteors have any correspondence with the direction of the 

 wind, or with lines of magnetic dip or declination. That they 

 are connected with the causes of the Aurora Borealis, is quite 

 doubtful, yet it is well worthy of notice, that very brilliant dis- 

 plays of the latter have often occurred about the 13th of Novem- 

 ber. 



I. Meteoric Shower of April 20, 1803. 



1. General account. — " The newspapers from North Carolina, 

 Virginia, and New Hampshire, contain accounts of a remarkable 

 exhibition of meteors, or of shooting stars, seen at Raleigh, [N. C] 

 Richmond, [Va.] and Portsmouth, [N. H.] towards the end of 



