Upward of one hundred lay prostrate on the ground--some speechless, and
some with the bitterest cries, but with their hands raised, imploring
God to save the world and them. The scene was truly awful; for never did
rain fall much thicker than the meteors fell toward the earth; east,
west, north, and south, it was the same."

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

This extraordinary spectacle commenced a little before midnight, and
reached its height between four and six o'clock in the morning. The
night was remarkably fine. Not a cloud obscured the firmament. Upon
attentive observation, the materials of the shower were found to exhibit
three distinct varieties:--1. Phosphoric lines formed one class
apparently described by a point. These were the most abundant. They
passed along the sky with immense velocity, as numerous as the flakes of
a sharp snow-storm. 2. Large fire-balls formed another constituency of
the scene. These darted forth at intervals along the arch of the sky,
describing an arc of 30 deg. or 40 deg. in a few seconds. Luminous trains marked
their path, which remained in view for a number of minutes, and in some
cases for half an hour or more. The trains were commonly white, but the
various prismatic colors occasionally appeared, vividly and beautifully
displayed. Some of these fire-balls, or shooting-stars, were of enormous
size. Dr. Smith of North Carolina observed one which appeared larger
than the full moon at the horizon. "I was startled," he remarks, "by the
splendid light in which the surrounding scene was exhibited, rendering
even small objects quite visible." The same, or a similar luminous body,
seen at New Haven, passed off in a northwest direction, and exploded
near the star Capella. 3. Another class consisted of luminosities of
irregular form, which remained nearly stationary for a considerable
time, like the one that gleamed aloft over the Niagara Falls. The
remarkable circumstance is testified by every witness, that all the
luminous bodies, without a single exception, moved in lines, which
converged in one and the same point of the heavens; a little to the
southeast of the zenith. They none of them started from this point, but
their direction, to whatever part of the horizon it might be, when
traced backward, led to a common focus. Conceive the centre of the
diagram to be nearly overhead, and a proximate idea may be formed of the
character of the scene, and the uniform radiation of the meteors fro