On the Meteors of loth Kovemher. 375 



that would produce such results, I would answer, this is no objection, 

 as long as we are ignorant of the composition of the Will-o'wisp, 

 and similar meteoric lights, so often seen over low grounds. — 

 Those who prefer it, however, will consider all meteors as solid mas- 

 ses, and will then have the liberty of regarding them as the exuviae of 

 lunar volcanoes, or perhaps as juvenile terrene comets — or lastly, if 

 preferable, they may in the words of an author remarkably perspicu- 

 ous upon other subjects, suppose them "to arise frovi the fermenta- 

 tion of the effiiwia of acid and alkaline bodies, ivhich float in the at- 

 mosphere.^^ A profound thinker has said, " He that knew not what 

 he himself meant by learned terms, cannot make us know any thing 

 by his use of them, let us beat our heads about them ever so long." 

 So I advise you not to beat your head long about the latter suppo- 

 sition. . W. E. A. AiKiN." 



6. Phenomena as observed ati^retfencA;, Maryland, (Lat. 39^24' N. 

 Lon. 77° 28' W.,) first published in the Frederick Citizen, and commu- 

 nicated to Professor Olmsted by the writer, Mr. Virgil H. Bakber. 



" Yesterday morning I observed the most brilliant phenomenon of 

 nature I ever witnessed. The heavens appeared filled with what 

 struck me at first as sparks of fire flying with great rapidity towards 

 every point of the horizon. — This was about half past 5, A. M. After 

 looking attentively for a short time, I perceived that these fiery glob- 

 ules all diverged from the same point, and generally, if not always, van- 

 ished in a luminous trail of a peculiar and beautiful blue and white 

 light. One of these in the direction of N. E. near the star Cor Ca- 

 roli, assumed the form of a serpent with the head very distinct, and a 

 protuberance in the middle of the body. It writhed with the tortuous 

 motion peculiar to that reptile, and continued visible, as I estimated 

 the time, from 3 to 5 minutes, and at last terminated in a broad lu- 

 minous nebula. The point in the heavens that seemed to form the 

 focus of these rays, if we call them such, was the neck of the lion 

 in the constellation Leo. This focus was several degrees in diame- 

 ter, if we judge from the fact that when these bodies of light appear- 

 ed within that space, they were not projected like the others in any 

 one direction towards the horizon, but either were elongated, form- 

 ing two opposite points, or disappeared in the position in which they 

 first showed themselves. I could distinguish no report even from the 

 largest of these bodies, though their light was sufficient to cast a faint 

 shadow. The whole phenomenon terminated only by being merged 

 in the broad light of day. Travellers and others, I am told, report 

 that it commenced about two o'clock. 



There was a slight repetition of it this morning, and from the same 

 point in the heavens. If this radiating point shall have been accu- 

 rately observed in distant parts of the United Stales, it may forra 



