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South America, which was estimated to weigh fifteen tons. When first discovered, it was so hot as to prevent all approach. Upon its cooling, many efforts were made, by some travellers who were present, to detach specimens, but its hardness was too great for any tools which they possessed. There is a mass of meteoric iron in Yale College cabinet, weighing 1,635 lbs.

Aerolites consist of elements which are familiar. The analysis of these stellar masses gives us names as commonplace as if they had known a far less romantic origin-oxygen, sulphur, phosphorus, iron, tin, copper: in all, nineteen elements have been found. This fact is interesting as revealing something of the chemistry of the region of space, concerning which we otherwise know nothing. The compounds, however, are very peculiar, so as to distinguish an aërolite from any terrestrial substance. For example, meteoric iron, a prominent constituent of aërolites, is an alloy that has never been found in terrestrial minerals.

METEORS.-The records of meteors are still more wonderful. It is related that at Crema, Italy, one day in the 15th century, the sky at noonday became dark,—a cloud of appalling blackness overspreading the heavens. Upon this cloud appeared the semblance of a great peacock of fire flying over the town. This suddenly changed to a huge pyramid, that rapidly traversed the sky. Thence arose awful lightnings and thunderings, amid which there fell

upon the plain great rocks, some of which weighed 100 lbs. In 1803 a brilliant fireball (meteor) was seen traversing Normandy with great velocity, and some moments after, frightful explosions, like the noise of cannon or roll of musketry, were heard coming from a single black cloud hanging in a clear sky; they were prolonged for five or six minutes. These discharges were followed by a great shower of stones, some weighing over 24 lbs. In 1819 a meteor was witnessed in Massachusetts and Maryland, the diameter of which was estimated at half a mile. Its height was thought to be about 25 miles. In July, 1860, a brilliant fireball passed over the state of New York from west to east, and was last seen far out at sea.

SHOOTING STARS.-One of the earliest accounts of star-showers is that which relates how, in 472, the sky at Constantinople appeared to be alive with flying stars and meteors. In some Eastern annals we are told that in October, 1202, "the stars appeared like waves upon the sky. They flew about like grasshoppers, and were dispersed from left to right." It is recorded that in the time of King William II. there occurred in England a wonderful shower of stars, which "seemed to fall like rain from heaven. An eye-witness seeing where an aërolite fell, cast water upon it, which was raised in steam with a great noise of boiling." Rastel says concerning it: "By the report of the common people in this kynge's

time, diverse great wonders were seene, and therefore the kynge was told by diverse of his familiars, that God was not content with his lyvyng."

In more modern times, the most remarkable accounts are those of the showers of November 12th, 1799, and 1833. Humboldt, in describing the former, says the sky was covered with innumerable fiery trails, which incessantly traversed the sky from north to south. From the beginning of the phenomenon there was not a space in the heavens three times the diameter of the moon which was not filled every instant with the celestial fireworks,-large meteors blending constantly their dazzling brilliancy with the long phosphorescent paths of the shooting stars. The latter shower was most brilliant on this continent, and was visible from the lakes to the equator. The scene was one of the most imposing grandPhosphoric lines swept over the sky like the flakes of a sharp snow-storm. Large meteors darted across the heavens, leaving luminous trains behind. them that were visible sometimes for half an hour: they generally shed a soft white light; occasionally, however, yellow, green, and other colors varied the scene. Irregular fireballs, almost stationary, glared in the sky; one especially, larger than the moon, hung in mid air over Niagara Falls and mingled its ghastly light with the foam and mist of the cataract. The shower commenced near midnight, but was at its height about 5 A.M. In many

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sections of the country, the people were terrorstricken by the awful spectacle, and supposed that the end of the world had come.

An inferior shower was seen in 1831 and 1832; and so also in the succeeding years, until 1839. These did not compare in brilliancy with the remarkable phenomenon of 1833.

There was an interval of about 33 or 34 years between the great showers of 1799 and 1833; this seemed to indicate another shower in November, 1866. The people of both hemispheres were literally awake to the subject. Newspapers aroused the most sluggish imagination with thrilling accounts of the scenes presented in 1799 and 1833. Extempore observatories were founded in every convenient point. Watchmen were stationed, and the city bells were to be rung on the appearance of the first wandering celestial visitor. The exact night was not definitely known, but for fear of a mistake, the 11th, 12th, and 13th were generally observed. All painfully testify to those nights being clear and beautiful as moonlight and starlight could make them. The anxious vigils, the fruitless scannings of the sky, the disappointment, the meteors that were dimly thought to be seen all these are recorded in the memory of the temporary astronomers of that year. While, however, the people of America were thus disappointed, there was being enacted in England a display brilliant indeed, though inferior to the one of

1833. The staff at Greenwich Observatory counted about 8,000 meteors; other observers, however, made a much lower estimate. Chambers, in describing the phenomena, says: "Of the large number of descriptions which came under my eye in manuscript and in print, the following is a fair example: 'From 111 P. M. until 2 A. M. we were much interested in watching the shooting stars; anything so beautiful I never saw, especially about one o'clock, when they were most brilliant;' and so on by the ream." In November, 1867, the long-expected shower was seen in this country, but it failed to satisfy the public expectation. The sky was, however, illumined with shooting stars and meteors, some of which exceeded even Jupiter or Venus in brilliancy.

Number of meteors and shooting stars.-In a paper lately read by Prof. Newton, it is estimated that the average number of meteors that traverse the atmosphere daily, and which are large enough to be visible to the eye on a dark clear night, is 7,500,000; and if to these the telescopic meteors be added, the number would be increased to 400,000,000. In the space traversed by the earth there are, on the average, in each volume the size of our globe (including its atmosphere), as many as 13,000 small bodies, each one capable of furnishing a shooting star visible under favorable circumstances to the naked eye. Annual periodicity of the star-showers.-On almost any clear night, from five to seven shooting stars

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