On the Meteors of ISth November. 363 



sufficiently to hazard an opinion. Tlie day being a warm and 

 damp one, I predicted that similar funguses might spring up within 

 twenty four hours ; and in fact, two others appeared before the eve- 

 ning of the day, whose vegetable character was still more unequivo- 

 cal ; thus settling the question in my own mind, that there was an en- 

 tire mistake in regard to the meteor described in the place above 

 mentioned. Injustice to Colonel Graves, however, I ought to say, 

 that under the circumstances of the case, the mistake was very natu- 

 ral, nor should I take the pains to correct it, had I not noticed that 

 his account was referred to, as correct, in some of the European 

 Journals. 



Amherst College, Mass. Nov. 23, 1833. 



Art. XIV. — Observations on the Meteors of November l^th, 1833; 

 by Denison Olbisted, Professor of Mathematics and Natural 

 Philosophy in Yale College. 



The morningof November 13th, 1833, was rendered memorable by 

 an exhibition of the phenomenon called shooting stars, which was 

 probably more extensive and magnificent than any similar one hith- 

 erto recorded. The morning itself was, in most places where the 

 spectacle v/as witnessed, remarkably beautiful. The firmament was 

 unclouded; the air was still and mild; the stars seemed to shine with 

 more than their wonted brilliancy, a circumstance arising not merely 

 from the unusually transparent state of the atmosphere, but in part no 

 doubt from the dilated state of the pupil of the eye of the spectator, 

 emerging suddenly from a dark room ; the large constellation Ori- 

 on in the southwest, followed by Syrius and Procyon, formed a stri- 

 king counterpart to the planets Saturn and Venus which were shining 

 in the southeast; and, in short, the observer of the starry heavens, 

 would rarely find so much to reward his gaze, as the sky of this morn- 

 ing presented, independently of the magnificent spectacle which con- 

 stituted its peculiar distinction. 



Probably no celestial phenomenon has ever occurred in this country, 

 since its first settlement, which was viewed with so much admiration 

 and delight by one class of spectators, or with so much astonishment 

 and fear by another class. For some time afier the occurrence, ihe 



