86 JMeteortic Phenomenon. 
METEORIC PHENOMENON. 
On the morning of the 13th. of November, from midnight to near 
sunrise, a period of more than six hours, the whole horizon, and the 
heavens to an immense height, were filled with fiery meteors or 
*‘ shooting stars,” as far as the eye could reach. ‘They appeared to 
take their course from a point a little south east of the zenith, to 
every quarter of the compass, sloping at an angle of thirty or forty de- 
grees, generally towards the earth ; some however took nearly a hor- 
izontal direction. ‘They were of all sizes, from that of a small point 
to three times the diameter of the planet Venus, and leaving a train 
of light in their course like that of a rocket. The larger ones threw 
a glare of light equal to that of a smart flash of lightning across the 
horizon, and left a luminous train, generally of a greater width than 
the diameter of the meteor, continuing for several minutes after 
their extinction, resembling a shining serpentine cloud of the elass 
called “ cirrus ;” and retaining its brightness for many minutes, from 
three or four to fifteen; and appearing to curve and move some de- 
grees upward, very slowly before they vanished. No noise or re- 
port could be heard from the largest, a proof of their great elevation 
although numbers were observed to scintillate and fly into numerous 
small sparks at the moment of extinction. The sky, at the time, was 
perfectly clear of clouds, with a brisk breeze from the S. W. ‘The 
atmosphere had a yellowish tinge and was so very luminous as great- 
ly to obscure the fixed stars. Fahrenheit’s thermometer, stood at 36° 
and the barometer at 29.50 inches. ‘The latter part of the previous 
night, it had rained profusely, and the twelfth, or day previous was 
fair and windy, bar. at 29:40 inches and ther. at 50° at noon. Me- 
teors were falling like a shower of snow for a period of nearly six 
hours, or from twelve or one o’clock to past six A. M. Some few 
were seen as early as ten o’clock P. M. of the twelfth, from which 
time they gradually increased in numbers and in brilliancy until 4 
o’clock: at which period they were in the greatest abundance. A 
phenomenon so rare, so brilliant and so sublime, could not fail to 
strike with wonder and with awe, its numerous beholders. Many 
could not believe it to ‘be a natural phenomenon depending on the 
regular Jaws of nature, but supposed it was a miraculous occurrence 
intended fo warn the inhabitants of the earth of some great and im- 
pending calamity. The most striking and interesting part of the 
