THEIR FREQUENCY. 
359 
their number has risen to two thousand. Whenever one is 
observed, which has the diameter of Sirius or of Jupiter, we 
are sure of seeing the brilliant meteor succeeded by a great 
number of smaller ones. If the falling stars be very nume- 
rous during one night, it is probable that they will continue 
equally so during several weeks. It would seem, that in the 
higher regions of the atmosphere, near that extreme limit 
where the centrifugal force is balanced by gravity, there 
exists at regular periods a particular disposition for the pro- 
duction of bolides, falling-stars, and the Aurora Borealis.* Does 
the periodical recurrence of this great phenomenon depend 
upon the state of the atmosphere ? or upon something which 
the atmosphere receives from without, while the earth advan- 
ces in the ecliptic ? Of all this we are still as ignorant as 
mankind were in the days of Anaxagoras. 
With respect to the falling-stars themselves, it appears to 
me, from my own experience, that they are more frequent in 
the equinoctial regions than in the temperate zone; and more 
frequent above continents, and near certain coasts, than in 
the middle of the ocean. Do the radiation of the surface of 
the globe, and the electric charge of the lower regions of the 
atmosphere (which varies according to the nature of the soil 
and the positions of the continents and seas), exert their in- 
fluence as far as those heights where eternal winter reigns P 
The total absence of even the smallest clouds, at certain sea- 
sons, or above some barren plains destitute of vegetation, 
seems to prove that this influence can be felt as far as five or 
six thousand toises high. 
A phenomenon analogous to that which appeared on the 
12th of November at Cumana, was observed thirty years 
previously on the table-land of the Andes, in a country 
studded with volcanoes. In the city of Quito there was 
seen in one part of the sky, above the volcano of Cayamba, 
such great numbers of falling-stars, that the mountain was 
thought to be in flames. This singular sight lasted more 
than an hour. The people assembled in the plain of Exido, 
* Ritter, like several others, makes a distinction between bolides min- 
gled with falling-stars and those luminous meteors which, enveloped in 
vapour and smoke, explode with great noise, and let fall (chiefly in the 
day-time) aerolites. The latter ceitainly do not belong to our atmo- 
sphere. 
