378 On the Meteors of I2th JVovember, 



would frequently appear for a moment, near the point from whence 

 they seemed to emanate ; which was unquestionably occasioned by a 

 coincidence of the course of the meteor with the line of observation. 



Respecting the origin of these meteors, let him speculate who 

 pleases ; for until the boundaries of human knowledge shall be en^ 

 larged, vague and inadequate hypotheses, are probably all that can be 

 advanced. When man shall have explored the secrets of the bound- 

 less, and seemingly empty regions of space, which encompass th« 

 earth, then may he assign causes for phenomena^ that now seem 

 veiled in mystery. In speculating on the nature and origin of shoot- 

 ing stars, they must not be confounded with those ponderous fire balls, 

 which, at intervals of years perhaps, sweep across the heavens, and 

 light up the repose of night, with the effulgence of day ; spreading 

 consternation and wonder wherever they are seen, and Hltimately 

 falling and burying themselves in the earth. Those bodies, are prob- 

 ably the wrecks of small spheres, which, from the earliest ages of 

 nature, have pursued a trackless orb around the earth, moving beyond 

 the subtile confines of the otmosphere -, and set on fire perhaps in 

 their fall, by the dense strata of air they encounter, reacting with the 

 spontaneously inflammable materials of which they in part consist. 



The solid nuclei of these meteoroliies, have frequently been ex- 

 amined by the chemist ; but the same cannot be said of falling stars* 

 They do not seem to be of a nature so substantial : for it would ap- 

 pear, that they seldom or never reach terra firma, but dissipate them- 

 selves in vapor or mist, while yet high in the atmosphere. 



It is quite probable, in my opinion, that this display of meteors has 

 been observed in different places^ over a widely extended region. 

 This, however, remains to be determined. J. L. R." 



9. Phenomena as observed at Salisbury, N. Carolina, Lat. 35^ 

 39' N., Lon. 80° 25' W., by Ashbel Smith, M. D., (Communi- 

 cated to Prof. Olmsted.) 



" Travelling on a professional visit, I was in the open air, without 

 any intermission from night fall till the day dawned. In the early part 

 of the night, the atmosphere was uncommonly bright and even glit- 

 tering. A few meteors of inferior brightness, in remote regions of 

 the atmosphere, were seen by me previously to midnight ; some as 

 early, I feel pretty confident, as 10 o'clock. After midnight, they 

 rapidly increased in number and brilliancy till 4 o'clock. The dis- 

 play was then in the highest degree magnificent and imposing, and 

 continued without diminution till the dawn of day, every region of the 

 atmosphere all the while presenting the sublime spectacle of a shower 

 of fire. The meteors varied greatly in the degree of splendor, some 

 being an obliquely luminous line, while others resembled a rushing 

 ball of liquid fire, with a splendid train or tail, bathing the surround- 

 ing objects in a flood of most gorgeous but mellow light." 



