388 Miscellanies. 



siderable numbers, saw and remembered the fact. My friend states 

 his preference for the testimony of nautical men, and yet of all those 

 who navigate between this and England, on the night in question, 

 not one has recorded observations of any extraordinary meteoric oc- 

 currence like that of 13th of Nov. 1833. 



In the second remark, allusion is made to a record on the minutes 

 of the American Philosophical Society. This record is there en- 

 tered as a " verbal communication in relation to the result of ob- 

 servations on the recurrence of the remarkable meteoric display of 

 Nov. 13th, 1833."* This record rests not on the responsibility of 

 that learned body, but on my own, and I believe I have shown full 

 warrant for it. Records are made of all verbal communications 

 presented to the society, and among them will be found a reference 

 to the new facts presented by my friend. Prof. Olmsted, as the sub- 

 stance of another verbal communication made by me. 



In conclusion, I think the examination of those of the new facts, 

 which are susceptible of such a course, has conclusively shown, that 

 the meteors referred to in them, were of ordinary character. And 

 a comparison of this result, with the inference which I have else- 

 where drawn from my own observations, and that of others, leads 

 to the conclusion, that no satisfactory evidence has yet been pre- 

 sented of the occurrence, in 1834, of a meteoric display, which in 

 numbers, in peculiarities, or in connexion (as parts of the same phe- 

 nomenon) and extent combined, was such as to connect it with the 

 meteoric display of Nov. i 3th, 1833. 



25. Aurora Borealis of Nov. 17, 1835. — The evening of Nov. 

 17th, was rendered memorable by the occurrence of a remarkable 

 Aurora Borealis. Both in extent and magnificence, it is beheved to 

 have been one of the grandest forms of this mysterious phenomenon, 

 resembling in its features the great Aurora Borealis of August 19th, 

 1726, which was seen in France and other parts of Europe, and 

 which furnished the occasion of the celebrated work of M. Mairan 

 on the Aurora Borealis.f 



The present Aurora exhibited itself, in nearly equal magnificence, 

 though with features somewhat varied, at points very remote from 



* This quotation from the minutes, which are not published, is made b}*^ the 

 permission of the society. 



t Memoirea of the French Academy for 1726 and 1731. 



