On the Meteors of 13ih JVovember. 377 



^8 degrees. No change was noticeable in the magnetic dip, varia- 

 tion or intensity. Gold leaf electrometers were excited by a touch ; 

 Bennett's, placed on the prime conductor, with the cushion insulated, 

 rose on a slight motion of the machine. The pendulum of De Luc's 

 dry pile was accelerated. Your most ob't serv't, 



F. G. Smith." 



Lynchburgh, Nov. 13. 



8. Phenomena as observed at Worthingion, Ohio, Lat. 40° 4'N., 

 Lon. 83° 3' W., (from the Ohio State Journal.) 



"This morning an hour or two before day, our sky presented a most 

 singular display of luminous meteors. The appearance I am inform- 

 ed commenced at least as early as half past three o'clock, though it 

 was an hour later, when I first saw it ; and it continued without inter- 

 mission, until the light of day rendered it invisible. A numberless 

 multitude of shooting stars, were constantly marking the cloudless sky, 

 with long trails of light. As seen from this place, they seemed to 

 proceed from a point in the heavens, a litde west of Delta, in the 

 constellation Leo. This observation was made at five o'clock. From 

 this point, they appeared to shoot with great velocity down the con- 

 cave sky, losing themselves on the dark blue expanse, or disappear- 

 ing in the faint and undefined mist, that rested on the horizon. They 

 were not generally visible in their course, through a greater arc, than 

 20 or 25 deg : and those which seemed to approach nearest the hor- 

 izon, first made their appearance not far above it; while those that 

 commenced their course near the center of radiation, uniformly dis- 

 appeared before they reached the misty part of the atmosphere. 

 Each meteor in its course left a pale phosphorescent train of light, 

 which usually remained visible for some minutes. Occasionally, one 

 would seem to burst into flames, and burn with increased energy, il- 

 luminating the face of terrestrial nature, with a degree of brightness 

 and splendor inferior only to sunshine. But this effect would be of 

 merely momentary duration : for the substance of the meteor would 

 be rapidly consumed, leaving a broad luminous way, which would 

 perhaps remain distinctly visible for twenty minutes ; while the wind 

 or some other cause would appear to waft it gently eastward, so mod- 

 ifying its form as to give it the irregular outline of a cloud. 



If observations have been made at different and distant places, I 

 think it will be determined, that these subtile and mysterious bodies 

 (if bodies they be) first became visible in the aerial regions, high 

 above the grosser strata of our atmosphere. As witnessed from this' 

 place, (the latitude of which, is 40 deg. 4 min., longitude 6 deg, 

 from Washington,) they seemed to diverge from a common center, 

 located some ten or fifteen degrees southeast from the zenith. But 

 I have no doubt, this apparent divergence was an illusion, and that 

 their true courses were nearly parallel. A luminous spot or ring, 



Vol. XXV.—No. 2. 48 



