352 
SHOWERS OE PALLING STARS. 
tremely fine. From half after two in the morning, the most 
extraordinary luminous meteors were seen in the direction 
of the east. M. Bonpland, who had risen to enjoy the 
freshness of the air, perceived them first. Thousands of 
bolides and falling stars succeeded each other during the 
space of four hours. Their direction was very regular 
from north to south. They filled a space in tlx© sky ex- 
tending from due east 30° to north and south. In an 
amplitude of 60° the meteors were seen to rise above the 
horizon at E.X.E. and at II, to describe arcs more or less 
extended, and to fall towards the south, after having followed 
t he direction of the meridian. Some of them attained a 
height of 40’, and all exceeded 25° or 30°. There was very 
little wind in the low regions of the atmosphere, and that 
little blew from the cast. No trace of clouds was to be 
seen. M. Bonpland states that, from the first appearance 
of the phenomenon, there was not in the firmament a 
space equal in extent to three diameters of the moon, which 
was not filled every instant with bolides and falling stars. 
The first were fewer in number, but as they were of different 
sizes, it was impossible to fix the limit between these two 
classes of phenomena. All these meteors left luminous 
traces from five to ten degrees in length, as often happens 
in the equinoctial regions. The phosphorescence of these 
traces, or luminous bands, lasted seven or eight seconds. 
Many of the falling stars bad a very distinct nucleus, as 
large as the disk of Jupiter, from which darted sparks of 
vivid light. The bolides seem to burst as by explosion ; but 
the largest, thoso from 1° to 1° 15' in diameter, disappeared 
without scintillation, leaving behind them phosphorescent 
bands (trabes) exceeding in breadth fifteen or twenty 
minutes. The light of these meteors was white, and not 
reddish, which must doubtless be attributed to the absence 
of vapour and the extreme transparency of the air. For 
the same reason, within the tropics, the stars of the first 
magnitude have, at their rising, a light decidedly whiter than 
in Europe. 
Almost all the inhabitants of Cutnana witnessed this phe- 
nomenon, because they had left their houses before four 
o’clock, to attend the early morning mass. They did not 
behold these bolides with indifference ; the oldest among 
