FALLING METE0H3. 
353 
them remembered that the great earthquakes of 1766 were 
preceded by similar phenomena. The Guaiqueries in the 
Indian suburb alleged “that the bolides began to appear 
at one o’clock ; and that as they returned from fishing in 
the gulf, they had perceived very small falling stars to- 
wards the east.” They assured us that igneous meteors 
were extremely rare on those coasts after two o’clock in 
the morning. 
The phenomenon ceased by degrees after four o’clock, 
and the bolides and falling stars became less frequent ; but 
we still distinguished some to north-east by their whitish 
light, and the rapidity of their movement, a quarter of an 
hour after sunrise. This circumstance will appear less ex- 
traordinary, when I mention that in broad daylight, in 
1788, the interior of the houses in the town of Popayan 
was brightly illumined by an aerolite of immense magni- 
tude. It passed over the town, when the sun was s hinin g- 
clearly, about one o’clock. M. Bonpland and myself, during 
our second residence at Cumana, after having observed, on 
the 26th of September, 1800, the immersion of the first 
satellite of Jupiter, succeeded in seeing the planet distinctly 
with the naked eye, eighteen minutes after the disk of 
the sun had appeared in the horizon. There was a very 
slight vapour in the east, but Jupiter appeared on an azure 
sky. These facts bear evidence of the extreme purity and 
transparency of the atmosphere in the torrid zone. The 
mass of diffused light is the less, in proportion as the va- 
pours are more perfectly dissolved. The same cause which 
checks the diffusion of the solar light, diminishes the ex- 
tinction of that which emanates either from bolides from 
J upiter, or from the moon, seen on the second day after its 
conjunction. The 12th of November was an extremely hot 
day, and the hygrometer indicated a very considerable de- 
gree of dryness for those climates. The reddish vapour 
clouded the horizon anew, and rose to the height of 14°. 
This was the last time it appeared that year ; and I must 
here observe, that it is no less rare under the fine sky of 
Cumana, than it is common at Acapulco, on the western 
coast of Mexico. 
We did not neglect, during the course of our journey 
from Caracas to the Bio Negro, to enquire everywhere, 
VOL. I. 2 A 
