344, On the Meteors of 13th November, 1833. 
is marked upon the plate, by a broad line, has been determined by 
the following considerations :—The cloud, being formed by a con- 
traction of the train from each extremity towards the middle, must 
have oceupied a place higher, by several degrees at least, than the 
lower extremity. Let us suppose this amount of elevation to have 
been, at Middletown, one quarter of the meteors path, or 74°. As 
the cloud, by its motion, rose 8° or 10°, before it faded, its final al- 
titude, at Middletown, must have been about 53°; while at Brookfield 
it was observed to be about 424° high, nearly in the due east. These 
inferences, of course, are only presumed to afford an approximation to 
the truth; but they have been deduced from the known facts, and have 
therefore a general correctness. ‘The result is, that the cloud was 
borne east a distance of 234 miles, in a direction such that it would 
in fact appear to a spectator at Middletown to trace back the course 
which the meteor had pursued, in the same manner as Mr. Merrick 
described. At New Haven also, it would be seen to float around 
nearly to the north, in the manner described by Prof. Olmsted. 
The cloud must therefore, when it vanished, have held an elevation of 
about twenty one miles—having descended probably more than sev- 
enteen miles in addition to its horizontal motion. ‘The distance of 
twenty three miles and a half—which appears to have been the effect 
of a current in the atmosphere—was passed in less than four minutes, 
if we reason from the angular velocity attributed to it by Prof. Olm- 
sted (See p. 158); but, as the impression there described was proba- 
bly that of the velocity when it was greatest, the true time was possi- 
bly longer. Thus Mr. Merrick estimated the time as ten minutes ; 
and various considerations which cannot now be mentioned lead us 
to the opinion that the time was probably six or seven minutes, and 
the velocity of the cloud three or four miles a minute. 
But we return to the meteor itself, with a view to the determina- 
tion of its absolute velocity. The length of its course being already 
ascertained, within narrow limits, we have only to discuss the question 
of time. Unfortunately no observation of the number of seconds 
which the meteor occupied in its flight was made.on the spot; but 
this omission may be supplied with a useful degree of certainty—al- 
though of course not with accuracy. 
All the circumstances in the meteoric shower combine to show that 
the meteors, both large and small, which were seen by any one ob- 
server in any one quarter of the heavens, had the same angular velo- 
city; and that, if we class the meteors with reference to the distance 
