380 On the Meteors of 1 3th November. 



10. Phenomena as observed uqq.v Augusta, Georgia, Lat. 33° N. 

 Lon. 82° W., (from ihe Georgia Courier.) 



" Mr. Editor, — To those of your readers, who had not the good 

 fortune to witness the late meteoric phenomenon, and perhaps, have 

 not seen a detailed account of that grand spectacle, the following re- 

 marks of an eye witness may prove interesting. 



The place from which we made our observations, was about 60 

 miles S. W. by W. from this city. The day had been very warm for 

 the season of the year, and the atmosphere thick and smoky until 

 sunset, after which, the thermometer fell very rapidly and the sky 

 became perfectly clear. At about 9 p m, the shooting stars first ar- 

 rested our attention, increasing both in number and brilliancy until 

 30 minutes past 2 A m, when one of the most splendid sights perhaps 

 that mortal eyes have ever beheld, was opened to our astonished 

 gaze. 



From the last mentioned hour until day light the appearance of 

 the heavens was awfully sublime. It would seem as if worlds upon 

 worlds from the infinity of space were rushing like a whirlwind to our 

 globe — then it would appear as if the firmament was slowly melting 

 with heat, and the stars descending like a snow fall to the earth — un- 

 til again some fiery sphere would start from its orbit blazing and hiss- 

 ing through the vast expanse, sweeping worlds from their places, and 

 hurling whole systems from existence in its mad career. 



These bodies seemed generally to shoot in lines from the zenith to 

 every point of the horizon, crossing there however, sometimes at 

 different angles from 5° to 45°, the greater number seeming to fall in 

 M space of the horizon embraced by 15° north and south of north 

 east. The light shown, was different by different meteors, and 

 sometimes different by the same meteor. In some the ball or star 

 gave out a pale blue or pale green light, while the streak or tail left 

 would be orange or intensely white, and so on, exhibiting all the pris- 

 matic colors in instant changes; occasionally one would dart forward 

 leaving a brilliant train three or four inches in width, which would 

 gradually widen into a cloud three or four feet in apparent width, and 

 remain visible, some of them nearly fifteen minutes. At other times 

 some would appear and pass through an arc of 5° or 6°, when they 

 would explode, and the new formed meteors possess all the features 

 of the original one, passing very nearly in the same direction to dif- 

 ferent elevations from the horizon and become extinct. 



But by far the most brilliant one which we saw occurred at a ievi 

 minutes past five in the morning, and seemed to announce by its 

 splendor ihe finale of this grand exhibition of fire works in the heav- 

 ens. It seemed to pursue as near as we could judge a course from 

 s. E. to N. w., the ball being apparently five or six inches in diame- 

 ter with a train of from thirty to forty feet in length ; the latter assuming 



