An introduction to astronomy: designed as a text-book for the use of students in college. By Denison Olmsted ...

first turned toward this sul)ject by the grieat meteoric shower
of NNovembelr 13, 1833. On that morning, fiom two o'clock
unlltl broald (laylight, the sky be'illn P0)'ectly Serelne and cloudless, the wholel heavens wvre ligllted with a magnificent displaty of celestital firewo]rks. NuIn10nerous b)right )bo(lics, which
migllt be compared with stars of the largmest mnagnitudes, iand
with l)lalncts, wmre darting toward tllhe earth on all sides, (describing. arcs of groeat circles, of all lengthts from 70~ to less thlan a
sinle (1 degree. in1 mally cases, they left long trains of lighllt inl
their paths, whlichll lasted a few seconds; and occasionally, w\hen
a meteor of unusutal briglhtness dsesclnded, the traill of light continued tor minutes. he light lwhich somnic of tlhem shled was
equal to tlhat of the mloon at tlhe quarlter. The whole ntunllber
sccn at lany one p)lae of observation could not lIave been less
tllin!O00('00.
Ol taci'(ing back the lilnes of directionl in which the metcors
movCld, it vwas found tlthat they all appeared to radiate fi'rom tie
samit( )oilt, whichll was situated near one of thle stars (Gamma.I'eerers) of the sickle, it tlhe constellation Leo; and, in e\very
repetition of the meteoric shower of N Iovemblcr, the radiant
point has occupied nearly the same situation.
T'bhis shtower pervaded ne-arly the whole of North Ameriica,
having al)peare(l in almost equal slplendor fiom the ]'ritislh
possesstions onl the 1north, to the West J[(lin d. (s and Aexico
on the southl and fiomn sixty-one degrees of longitude east of
tlhe Ameorican coast, quite to the Pacific oceanll on tlhe west.'T.Ihrouglhout thtis imnnIense region ti Ct diuration was nearly the
saelle. 1The1 meteorl's beganll to attriact attention by thleir unusual frequency and brilliancy, from nlte to twelve o'clock inl
the evening; w ere most striking in their appearance from two
to fui,'; arrivcl at their maximum, in many places, about
t/'uv o'clock; and continuel until rendercd invisiible lby thle
ulglt of day. The metcors moved in right linls, or in such
apparent curves, as, upon optical principles, can be resolved
into righti lines. ltoir general tendency wras towardl the northwest, althouigh by the effect of persl)ective they appeared to
move in all diriections.
407. Soon after this occurirence, it was ascertained that a
similalr meteoric shower lhad appeared in 1799, and what wvas