142 On the Meteors of 13th November, 1833. 
Ohio, and at half past 2 o’clock in Missouri and Louisiana; but in 
each case, it is said to have been about 4 o’clock.* 
Secondly, suppose the meteoric shower to have commenced on 
the east, and to have had a progressive motion westward; then the 
simultaneous occurrence in different meridians can be accounted for, 
only on the supposition that such a motion was exactly equal to that 
of the diurnal revolution. We can hardly conceive of atmospheric 
bodies acquiring such a motion except in common with the wind ; 
and we have already adverted to the improbability that the wind 
blew at the rate of seven hundred and fifty miles per hour. 
Thirdly, suppose the meteoric shower to have commenced on the 
west, and to have had a progressive motion eastward; then the oc- 
currence would have happened much later in the day to places lying 
eastward. For example, the shower is on the meridian in 87 degrees 
of west longitude, at 4 o’clock ; at that moment it is 5 o’clock at New 
Haven; and before the shower reaches our meridian, it will be later 
still, by all the time it occupies in passing through 15 degrees of lon- 
gitude. 
We find it impossible, therefore, to account for the simultaneous 
occurrence of the meteoric shower at places differing so many de- 
grees in longitude, on any other supposition than that the source or 
cloud (so to speak) was nearly stationary with respect to the earth, 
and beyond the influence of its rotation. 
We are led by the same fact to infer that the cloud was either 
much larger from north to south than from east to west, or that it had 
a slow progressive motion in the former direction, either directly from 
north to south, or from north west to south east. Had it covered as 
great an extent of country from east to west as it did from north to 
south, an extent exceeding 30 degrees of latitude, the time of ap- 
pearance on different meridians could not have been the same; and 
had the southerly progress of the cloud been otherwise than slow, the 
breadth being comparatively small from east to west, we cannot oc- 
count for the observed duration of the phenomenon, which, in its 
extreme limits, was about eight hours, namely, from 10 to 6 o’clock, 
although in most places, not more than three or four hours. Let us 
* No doubt a considerable range must be allowed for loose and indefinite state- 
ments respecting the time; but it seemns hardly credible that the actual difference of 
time could have corresponded to the difference of longitude in places so remote, with- 
out being remarked. 
