Meteors of November i'Sth, 1831. 339 



Art. XXI. — Meteors on the morning of November I'Sth, 1834 ; 

 • by Alexander C. Twining, Civil Engineer. 



TO THK EDITOR OK THE JOURNAL OF SCIENCE. 



Sir, — For a few days previous to Nov. 13lli, of the present 

 year, I was on the watch for extraordinary phenomena in the atmos- 

 phere and sky ; without. however observing more than this one, tiiat 

 on the morning of Nov. 9th, the zodiacal hght was more brilliant 

 in the east, than I remember ever to have seen it before. This was 

 perhaps owing to the great clearness of the atmosphere. I noticed 

 it at twenty minutes before 5 o'clock, A. M., and it extended at 

 that time, as high as the nebula in Cancer. 



On the morning of the 13th I made observations in the open air, 

 for a part of the time between one and two o'clock. Although I 

 saw in the moonlight, one meteor of considerable brightness, I was 

 satisfied very soon that nothing uncon mon was visible at that hour, 

 and ceased observing. Again, soon after four o'clock, the moon 

 having set, I took a station out of doors. At that time there was 

 evidently an unusual number of meteors. They appeared, for the 

 most part, lower in altitude than 30^ ; they might be seen in either 

 quarter of the hemisphere ; their color was reddish, and their appa- 

 rent magnitude very uniformly about that of the planet Mars. Their 

 flights were generally not more than 8° or 10° in length ; but one 

 which passed nearly in my zenith, shot through as much as 20°. — 

 They were generally attended with trains of several minutes in 

 breadth. Of these I observed but one that continued as long as 

 three seconds. In the course of twenty five minutes, as nearly as I 

 could judge, I counted thirty of these meteors ; and I estimated, 

 from this time and number, and the portion of the hemisphere which 

 my sight took in, that they were appearing at the rate of four in a 

 minute. 



Besides the meteors thus described, there were two or three 

 which evidently formed a part of the assemblage. These were 

 different from the first in their courses, crossing their paths at irregu- 

 lar angles, and differing also from them in magnitude and color, be- 

 ing very minute white points, precisely like the multitude of common 

 shooting stars, without trains. But the meteors first described, which 

 seemed to constitute the peculiarity of the scene, were not only 

 alike in magnitude, brilliancy, and as a general thing, in the intervals 



