174 Miscellanies. 



visited the West Indies on the night of Wednesday, August 10, 1831, 

 occurs the following. " * * Those who were driven into the fields, so 

 far from being able to stand on their legs, could not even sit up, the wind 

 was so violent as to throw them on their faces. The lightning flashed 

 tremendously in their eyes and appeared to strike the ground only a few 

 yards from them ; but such was the roar of the wind, that the thunder 

 could not be heard. Innumerable fire-halh were seen to fall from the 

 clouds." 



The account of this hurricane which is copied from a Bridgetown 

 (Barbadoes) paper into Lieut. Col. Reid's "Attempt to develop the Law 

 of Storms, S^c." 8vo. London, 1838, gives the following additional partic- 

 ulars. "About 3 A. M. (Aug. 11) the wind occasionally abated. * * * 

 The lightning also having ceased for a few moments only at a time, the 

 blackness in which the town was enveloped was inexpressibly awful. 

 Fiery meteors were presently seen falling from the heavens ; one in par- 

 ticular, of a globular form and a deep red hue, was observed by the writer 

 to descend perpendicularly from a vast height. It evidently fell by its 

 specific gravity, and was not shot or propelled by an extraneous force. On 

 approaching the earth with accelerated motion it assumed a dazzling 

 whiteness and an elongated form, and dashing to the ground in Beckwith- 

 Square, opposite the stores of Messrs. H. D. Grierson & Co., it splashed 

 around in the same manner as melted metal would have done, and was 

 instantly extinct. In shape and size it appeared much like a common 

 barrel-shade (a glass cylinder put over candles in the tropics) ; its brill- 

 iancy and the spattering of its particles on meeting the earth gave it the 

 resemblance of a body of quicksilver of equal bulk." p. 29. 



New Haven, September, 1838. 



2. Observations made at Yale College on the Eclipse of the Sun of 

 September 18, 1838. — Communicated by Professor Oumsted. 



I was prevented, by peculiar circumstances, from making any prepara- 

 tions for viewing the interesting eclipse of September 18th, having re- 

 turned home from a journey only on the day of its occurrence. I found, 

 however, that there was less reason for regret, as two young gentlemen of 

 our senior class, II. L. Smith and E. P. Mason, had been very assiduous 

 in making preparations for viewing the eclipse, having the necessary in- 

 struments all in readiness, and the time well regulated. Indeed, each of 

 them was furnished with a good telescope of his own making, the former 

 a Gregorian of three feet focus,* the latter a Newtonian of seven feet. 



* Messrs. H. L. Smith and F. Bradley have recently constructed a large tele- 

 scope, of which they have furnished me the following memorandum : The reflec- 

 tor has a focal length of about fourteen feet and is one foot in diameter, of the 

 Herschelian construction. The stand and adjustments are not yet completed, nor 



