Falling Stars and Meteorites. 161 



probably fall annually on the earth. These move more slowly 

 than the smaller stars, and they exhibit several colours in their 

 course, but are generally blue towards the horizon. Many of 

 them change colour, and others suddenly burst into a multitude 

 of small stars, or into a kind of vaporous cloud of peculiar tints. 

 Some emit coloured light vivid enough to redden or colour the 

 surface of the earth. It is a remarkable fact, often noticed, 

 that these meteors are unusually bright when seen through an 

 aurora borealis. 



The great majority of meteors appear to proceed from some 

 point in the East, but this may be owing to the relation between 

 the earth's motion in space and that of the meteors themselves. 



The heights of meteors that have been subject to actual 

 calculation He apparently for the most part between sixteen 

 and one hundred and forty miles, though some reach two 

 hundred, and some as much as four hundred miles, while some 

 appear to be not more than four miles from the surface at the 

 commencement of their course. Their velocity is less accu- 

 rately known, but has been estimated as generally double that 

 of the earth in its orbit. Herschel, however, assigns velocities 

 varying from eighteen to thirty-six miles per second for ordi- 

 nary meteors, and states that some appear to travel at the 

 rate of ninety miles per second. The earth's motion in its 

 orbit is between nine and ten miles per second. 



The passage of meteors is sometimes, though rarely, accom- 

 panied by noise, and in that case it is probable that some solid 

 body explodes in the air and falls to the earth. Falling stars 

 are thus connected with these remarkable aerolites, or meteoric 

 stones, specimens of which are to be found in several public 

 museums. 



As one of the most remarkable and complete accounts of 

 the phenomena of meteorites that has been placed on record, I 

 add an abstract of an account published in the American 

 Journal of Science, vols. xxv. and xxvi., of appearances observed 

 over a wide area on the night of the 12th and early morning 

 of the 13th of November, 1833, ono of those dates at which 

 the largost number of falling stars have generally been observed 

 in America as well as England. 



The meteors on this occasion first attracted notice by their 

 number and brilliancy about nine p.m. on the 12th of 

 November. At eleven o'clock they were very remarkable, but 

 bccamo most brilliant about four a.m. of the 13th, and con- 

 tinued with little diminution till broad daylight, after which a 

 few large fire-balls were seen, their light being more intense 

 than that of day. The area over which similar phenomena 

 were seen extended from longitude 01° to 100 J west, and from 

 the North American lakes to Jamaica. ' ( Everywhere within 



