136 On the Meteors of 13th November, 1833. 
the house tops, and then suddenly to vanish. Those which we par= 
ticularly remarked, appeared to descend in an angle of sixty de- 
grees with the horizon; but, as the smaller ones were so numerous, 
and crossed each other in different directions, it was only possible to 
ascertain with any degree of precision, only the paths of the largest 
and most brilliant.” 
The same exhibition was seen in the western part of Massachu- 
setts, and probably in the intermediate country, although no records 
of the observations have reached us. 
Remarkable exhibitions of shooting stars were seen in several parts 
of the earth at the corresponding time of the year 1832. On the 
night of November 19th, of that year, an extraordinary display of 
this kind oceurred in England which is thus noticed in the English 
papers. At Portsmouth, “the heavens presented a very extraordi- 
nary appearance, shortly after midnight. Thousands of meteors were 
seen continually darting about in all directions, and the whole atmos- 
phere was unusually illuminated. The driver of the night London 
coach, describes the effect as awful, and says it was with difficulty he 
could get his horses to face it. ‘The same appearances seem to have 
been observed in various other places.” The York Herald, speak- 
ing of the same night, says: “It was fine and moon light, when a 
series of fiery meteors were observed to flit across the heavens, with 
the rapidity and continuance of a regular discharge from a battery 
during a severe bombardment. ‘They issued from the west, and in 
the first half hour of the phenomenon, twenty five of those balls of 
fire were counted, shooting along in terrific grandeur, and leaving a 
train of brilliant white to designate the course of their path. One of 
these balls had a very curious appearance, and seemed to drive a 
star before it.” 
In the Salem Register is an extract from the Journal of Capt. 
Hammond, giving an account of the shooting stars seen at Mocha, in 
the Red Sea, Vovember 13th, 1832. ‘* From one o’clock A. M. till 
after day light, there was a very unusual phenomenon in the heav- 
ens. It appeared like meteors bursting in every direction. The sky 
at the time was clear, the stars and moon bright, with streaks of light, 
and thin white clouds interspersed in the sky. On landing in the 
morning, I inquired of the Arabs if they had noticed the above ; they 
said they had been observing “it most of the night. I asked them if 
the like had ever appeared before: the oldest of them replied that 
it had not.” 
