m longos a tergo albescere tractus;"

Virgil was a close observer of nature, and commences a storm with the
wind at south, "Quo signo caderent Austri;" just as we have represented
the usual course when these vortices pass near the observer's latitude.
It is also a well-known fact, that after a display of meteors, (and we
are now speaking of ordinary displays, and not of the great showers,)
the temperature falls considerably. It is not uncommon also, that
meteors are more abundant during an auroral display, as they ought to be
by the theory. We must, however, exempt from this influence those solid
meteors which sometimes come into collision with the earth, and
afterwards grace the cabinets of the curious. These bodies may be
considered microscopic planets, moving in stated orbits with planetary
velocity, and bear strongly on the explosive theory of Olbers, as fully
detailed by Sir David Brewster.

It is a very remarkable fact, first noticed by Olbers, that no fossil
meteoric stones have yet been discovered. If this fact be coupled with
the hypothesis advanced by Olbers, in reference to the origin of the
asteroidal group, we should have to date that tremendous catastrophe
since the deposition of our tertiary formations, and therefore it might
possibly be subsequent to the introduction of the present race into the
world. May not some of the legendary myths of the ancient world as
mystified by the Greeks, have for a foundation the disappearance of a
former great planet from the system? The idea of the existence of seven
planets is one of the oldest records of antiquity; but the earth of
course would not be counted one, and therefore in after times, the sun
was included to make up the number; just as the signs of the Zodiac have
been explained in accordance with the seasons of far later times than we
can possibly assign for the invention of this division of the heavens.
Let those who have the leisure, try how far the contraction and dilation
of the asteroidal orbits, to some average mean distance, will restore
them to a common intersection or node, as the point of divergence of the
different fragments. The question is interesting in many of its aspects,
and may yet be satisfactorily answered.

The composition of aerolites may also be taken as indications of the
common origin and elementary texture of the planets, whether they are
independently formed or have originally pertained to a former planet;
for no hypothesis of tel