On the Meteors of loth Novemher. 357 



'these meteors was beyond the atmosphere : for he says that this point 

 maintained the same relative position in respect to the fixed stars for 

 an hour or more. Such a westerly motion as this implies, was not 

 noticed here ; but I can easily conceive how the vanishing point of 

 these meteors, if they were projected towards the earth, might have 

 been beyond the atmosphere, while the place at which their motion 

 terminated, might have been within it ; and in the case above men- 

 tioned, the great brilliancy of the meteor renders it probable that il 

 was one of the nearest to the earth. 



It was thought by some in this place that they heard the snapping 

 or crackling sound said to have been noticed in other places. I 

 heard nothing of this sort myself: and I confess myself extremely 

 jealous of the accuracy of facts, where there is so much room for the 

 play of an excited imagination. 



I know of no other circumstances of peculiar interest in regard to 

 this appearance that were observed here. Feeble health prevented 

 me as I wished from employing any of the accurate magnetic instru- 

 ments belonging to the philosophical apparatus of the College, to de- 

 termine the influence of the meteor upon the needle. I hope it has 

 been done in other places, although I can hardly suppose the meteor 

 was near enough to the earth to produce much effect upon the needle. 

 If now I have not greatly misapprehended the facts in this case, 

 it seems to me that they lead us to infer a very strong and remark- 

 able resemblance between the phenomenon under consideration and 

 the aurora borealis. Biot, whose authority on such a subject no one 

 will doubt, in his Precis Elementaire de Physique, as translated by 

 Professor Farrar, thus describes the latter phenomenon. " Further- 

 more, it sometimes happens, that the phosphoric fires, (of the aurora 

 horealis,) breaking forth from all parts of the horizon, from the east, 

 the west, and the north, ascend, or seem to ascend, vertically over 

 the head of the observer, even to his zenith, and having passed this 

 point, they form by their union a brilliant crown, whose centre is sit- 

 uated some degrees lower, near the south east, at least in all places 

 where this remarkable modification of the phenomenon has been ob- 

 . served. But if we determine the apparent position of this crown, 

 either by the aid of astronomical instruments, or by observing what 

 stars are comprehended within it at the time of its formation, we 

 shall find that its centre, in every place where it has been observed, 

 is always situated exactly in the direction of that point in the heav- 

 ens, to which the magnetic needle is directed, when suspended by 



