On the Meteors of 13/A November. 389 



3. Number. — The whole number of meteors that fell towards 

 the earth cannot be accurately estimated, but it must have been im- 

 mensely great. Few accurate attempts appear to have been made 

 to estimate the number of meteors that fell within a given time. It 

 is well known that the number of the stars is, by most people, great- 

 ly overrated ; and, for a similar reason, the number of the meteors 

 was doubtless generally estimated much too high, some describing 

 them as descending by " thousands" at a time, and some even by 

 "millions." 



The writer in the Boston Centinel, whose description we have 

 inserted at length on page 366, appears to have made as exact an esti- 

 mate as any we have met with, although we think it considerably too 

 low. He supposes the number of meteors which fell during the 

 fifteen minutes before 6 o'clock to have been 8660. Consequently 

 they must have fallen at the rate of 34,640 an hour, making for 

 three hours, 103,920. The observer mentions that the number had 

 become fewer at the time of counting, in consequence, probably of 

 the advancing light of day. Reckoning, therefore, from 12, till 7 

 o'clock, we may safely double the foregoing amount, making the 

 aggregate number of meteors 207,840, — an estimate which probably 

 does not exceed, though it may fall very far short of the whole num- 

 ber which were visible at Boston. On the supposition that the me- 

 teors seen at places remote from each other, were not the same,' the 

 entire number that descended towards the earth, must have been in- 

 definitely great. 



The meteors however, were not uniformly distributed over the sky, 

 but appear, at some places of observation, to have been peculiarly 

 abundant in particular parts of the heavens. 



(1.) The phenomenon was most brilliant to the south and west of 

 Lynchburg, at an elevation of from 30° to 60°. (F. G. Smith.) 



(2.) The greatest number seemed to fall in a space of the hori- 

 zon north and south (east?) of north east. (Geo. Courier.) 



(3.) Mr. Palmer, found the number of meteors north of the ap- 

 parent radiating point much greater than on the south side. See 

 p. 385. 



4. Varieties. — The meteors exhibited three distinct varieties : 

 the first consisting of phosphoric lines, apparently described by a 

 point; the second, of large j/ire halls, that at intervals, darted along 

 the sky, leaving trains that occasionally remained for some time ; 

 the third, of luminous bodies that continued for a long time in view. 



