LUMINOUS METEORS DESCRIBED* ] $3 



During this time, these, and during the space of half an Several clouds 

 hour at least, similar clouds, were full of these little lumi- ^ifw J ff '! S 

 nous innumerable points, which, playing incessantly, gave 

 them an appearance similar to that, which is exhibited in a 

 clear sky by the galaxy. 



I have already said, that, when these had passed away, No star visible- 

 and the pitchy clouds also, which moved in the same direc- 

 tion, though not so rapidly, I could discern no stars what- 

 ever, and I took no small pains to spy out any, as they 

 might have furnished me with a solution of the phenomenon* 

 There was no flash of lightning broke from these clouds, but No lightning 

 they emitted much light of a pale phosphoric colour, and 1 ad"* 11 " 



such seemed the kind of light, that formed the body of the 

 meteors. These clouds were at a very considerable distance 

 beneath the higher stratum, and at no great elevation in the 

 atmosphere, and though, after the interval of an hour, some 

 of the most vivid flashes proceeded from this point in the 

 heavens, yet do 1 conceive no connection between them and 

 the clouds ; as the latter had clean passed away, in an 

 easterly direction, or with a few points north. Another 

 thing I must mention, that as they tended to a greater dis- 

 tance, their brilliancy gradually diminished. 



Along with this account I have enclosed a sketch of the Explanation 

 phenomena, wherein, though guilty of an anachronism, ° C e p ate * 

 having in the same moment of time shown the two meteors, 

 I may be pardoned, as I have tolerably preserved the rela- 

 tive bearings of distances, and, as nearly as in such a sketch 

 1 could, the respective forms of the masses of cloud. The 

 course of the first I have marked by making it luminous 

 throughout ; and note, that its first appearance was to the 

 eastward, which in this sketch being the left hand, the po-* 

 sition will be best seen when the sketch is held in the posi- 

 tion of observation, above the head. It is on a very propor- 

 tionally small scale, as at least 35 degrees are included within 

 it, and the spots noted for the meteors proportionally as 

 large, as was the halo that seemed to surround them. I am 

 afraid to have dilated too much ; yet, not seeing where I can 

 curtail the description, leave for you, Sir, to lop off any 

 superfluous matter. 



M 2 There 



