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views. It is supposed that the meteors in 1833 fell for eight or nine
hours. The orbital velocity of the earth is more than 1,000 miles per
minute, and the orbital velocity of the nebulous zone must have had a
similar velocity. During the nine hours of meteoric display, therefore,
the earth traversed 500,000 miles of her orbit, which would give
1,000,000 miles for the depth of the nebulous stratum. But if of such
vast extent, how happened it that the only part of the earth in which
these were visible in great density, was the United States, or a space
embraced between the latitudes of 50d and 20d north, and the longitudes
60d and 100d west, (and these are the widest limits,) comprising only
1/40 of the surface of the globe? To a calm inquirer, this difficulty
seems insurmountable. The author was then in the Mediterranean, on deck
the greatest part of the night,--the weather fine, and nothing unusual
visible in the heavens; from other sources he has also derived similar
information. Yet, were the earth then passing through a stratum of
meteors 1,000,000 miles in extent, it is utterly inconceivable that
other portions of the earth escaped. Much stress is also laid on the
fact that these meteors in 1833, passed from east to west generally, as
they ought to do, if tangential to the earth in her orbit; but on the
same phenomenon occurring in 1799, when the earth was in precisely the
same part of her orbit, Humboldt says distinctly, "the direction (of the
meteors) was very regular from north to south." How could this possibly
happen, and at the same time be moving tangentially to the orbit?

There is also another fact of importance not duly weighed in forming
such a theory. In 1833 the meteors evidently differed in velocity; one
class, consisting of luminous points, passed like a shower of fire with
great velocity to the westward, another class were like large fire-balls
with luminous trains moving with less rapidity, while a third class
consisted of nebulous patches which remained stationary for a long time,
and frequently emitting large streams of light. These last, at least, do
not deport themselves as planetary bodies moving 2,000 miles per minute.
But the fact still remains, that unusual displays have occurred about
the 12th and 14th of November; and also as a general thing when there
are no unusual displays, the meteors are more abundant about this time.
Let us try if we can reconcile these facts with the t