356 On the Meteors of ISth November. 



the needle would point, when left free to move both vertically and hori- 

 zontally? So it then appeared to me : and it struck me that the ap- 

 parent motions of all the meteors that I saw, might be explained on 

 the supposition that they were passing over portions of great circles 

 or meridians on a magnetic si)here, described about the magnetic 

 needle prolonged to the heavens. They did not all, indeed, begin 

 to be luminous until they had proceeded many degrees from the 

 elevated or south pole of such a sphere : but wherever they first be- 

 came visible, they seemed to me to be moving towards its northern 

 or depressed pole on meridional circles. 



A little reflection, however, will render it obvious that it would 

 make no difference as to the apparent paths of these bodies seen from 

 the earth, whether they actually described such curves as have been 

 mentioned, or moved in straight lines from a great distance towards the 

 earth in a direction parallel to that of the magnetic needle freely sus- 

 pended ; for in this latter case their apparent paths would coincide 

 with such meridional curves ; and one fact noticed here favors the 

 idea that they were thus projected in parallel lines towards the earth, 

 and that the distance of most of them when they started, was so 

 great as to coincide with the vanishing point in perspective. Those 

 nearest the point of radiation had generally a very slow motion, slow- 

 er than in other parts of the heavens, and the apparent velocity, as 

 well as brilliancy, in some cases increased as the meteor receded 

 from the radiant point. In other instances, after a slow motion over 

 a very inconsiderable arc, they disappeared. The inference seems 

 unavoidable that in such cases their line of motion was nearly towards 

 the observer. 



The wind on the morning of the 13th, blew hard from the north 

 west, and fleecy clouds, often considerably thick, were frequently 

 spread over large portions of the sky, especially near day light. But 

 in no instance was a meteor observed between the clouds and the 

 earth. Even the train of phosphorescent light, which Prof. Olmsted 

 has described as remaining near the star Capella, and which was 

 gradually folded into an irregular curve like a serpent, and borne 

 eastward by the wind, (as he very probably supposes,) was entirely 

 hidden by a cloud passing over it. Hence we must conclude that 

 the seat of this whole display was above the clouds. Yet if the wind 

 did actually disturb the phosphorescent train of one of these meteors, 

 it must have been within the atmosphere. Another fact, however, 

 stated by Prof. Olmsted, seems to indicate that the radiant point of 



