368 On the Meteors of I3th JSfovemher. 



lo be very low in the atmosphere, some to come down apparently al- 

 most to the house tops. They all had a distinct nucleus, generally 

 about half the size of Jupiter, some were larger than this, some smal- 

 ler, and a few were larger than the apparent disc of Jupiter. They 

 all left luminous while traces, bands, or tails, which generally appear- 

 ed to be, in popular language, about a yard in length ; a few were three 

 times and some not more than half this apparent length. — Their ap- 

 pearance continued in most cases from three to four seconds, some 

 five, not many, if any, longer than this. There was no appearance 

 of explosion or bursting to the nucleus of any of them. 



I have never met with any account of such a phenomenon having 

 been observed in this country before. Similar phenomena have oc- 

 casionally been presented elsewhere, and have been spoken of as 

 Showers of Fire, to which indeed this bore a perfect resemblance. 

 • One instance occurred about eighty years since in South America. 

 This was witnessed at Quito, where so many falling stars were seen, 

 above the volcano of Gayambo, as led the inhabitants to imagine the 

 mountains to be in flames. The people assembled in the plain of 

 Exico, and a procession was about to set out, in consequence, from 

 the Convent of St. Francis, when they discovered the phenomenon 

 to be occasioned by meteors which, as we are told, ran along the 

 skies in all directions. A more extensive and remarkable phenome- 

 non of this kind occurred in the night of the 12th of November, 1799. 

 Of this appearance as it was seen at Cbmana, an accurate account 

 has been given by M M. Humboldt and Bonpland. It occurred 

 towards the morning when, we are informed thousands of meteors, 

 bolides, fire-balls, or falling stars, as they were variously denominated, 

 suceeded each other during four hours. Their direction was from 

 North to South. They rose in the horizon at east-north-east, follow- 

 ed the direction of the meridian, and fell towards the South. There 

 was little wind, and this from the East. No trace of clouds was 

 seen. There was not a space in the firmanent equal in extent to 

 three diameters of the moon v^^hich was not filled with burning stars. 

 They were of different sizes. They left the luminous traces of from 

 five to ten degrees in length. The appearance of these traces con- 

 tinued seven or eight seconds. Many of the stars had a very distinct 

 nucleus as large as the apparent disc of Jupiter. The largest were 

 from 1° to 1° 15' in diameter. They are described as seeming to 

 burst as by explosion. Their light was white. They were seen 

 by almost all the inhabitants of Cumana, the oldest of whom as- 

 serted their remembrance that the great earthquakes of 1766, were 

 preceded by similar phenomena. The fishermen in the suburbs said 

 the Jire work, as they call it, began at one o'clock. It ceased by 

 degrees, after four, but some of the meteors were thought to be seen 

 a quarter of an hour after sunrise. Such meteors are said to be rarely 

 seen there after two in the morning. This phenomenon was observed 

 by some Franciscan Monks near the cataracts of Oronooko, and by 



