On the Meteors of 13th November, 1833. 137 
The following account of a “shower of fire” is taken from the 
New England Farmer (Boston) of May 1, 1833, in which work 
it is quoted from the Medical Gazette. “A singular phenome- 
non presented itself lately in some parts of France, particularly in 
the department of Orne, in the neighborhood of Argenton. Several 
times, and during two whole hours, the atmosphere, which was calm, 
became filled with an innumerable quantity of vivid sparks, forming 
a sort of shower of fire. ‘The appearance was most striking between 
four and five o’clock in the morning. ‘The same phenomenon was 
witnessed about Caen, where however, it excited less apprehension 
than at Argenton. Jt is said that in some places, the sparks was 
seen to alight upon the ground, but no traces of them have any where 
been found ; and it is probable that the phenomenon really took place 
in the upper regions, the appearance of having descended being most 
likely an optical illusion.” 
A few detached facts may be added, which may prove of some 
importance in relation to the theory of shooting stars. 
Mr. Brydone, the celebrated traveller, frequently observed shoot- 
ing stars from the mountain of St. Bernard, one of the high Alps, 
and also several from the highest region of Mount Etna; and they 
always appeared as high as when seen from the lowest grounds.* 
Kirch, a German Astronomer, gives the following account of a fire 
ball seen at Leipsic in 1686. ‘On the 9th of July, O. S. at half an 
hour past one in the morning, a fire ball with a tail was observed in 
83 degrees of Aquarius, and 4° north, which appeared immovable 
for half a quarter of an hour, having a diameter nearly equal to half 
the moon’s diameter. + 
There are various records of meteors which left luminous trains 
that remained for some time after the bodies themselves had disap- 
peared. One of the most remarkable of these was seen in England . 
November 13th, 1803.{ Even Virgil seems to have observed me- 
teors of this kind, and alludes to them as prognostics of a high wind. 
Sepe etiam stellas, vento impendente, videbis 
Precipites ccelo labi, noctisque per umbram 
Flammarum longos a tergo albescere tractus. 
Georg. L. 1.365. 
* Nicholson’s Jour. xx. 84. Brydone’s Tour in Sicily. 
t Quoted by Halley, Phil. trans. ab. vi. 110. 
{ Nicholson’s Jour. vi. 279 and vii. 66. Phil. trans. 1742 in Dr. Young’s Catalogue, 
p. 499. Foster, Nich. Jour. xxx. 132. 
Vou. XXVI.—No. 1. 18 
