New-York daily tribune., 1843-11-17
singular Phenomenon.

| Advertiser respecting seFeidi llieEoio lie Los
noted during the last few years. Respecting the
first he says:
Beng near the shore years ago the month oi
August observed bright meteor descending right IN front
Of me- almost in pependcuar line, and not, 10 appear
,nce three rods distant aud beng between and the sea
maintained It's light until almost touched the ground
licht shock instantly struck my though omehIng
had falsu approached the spot, but there being on
| starlight could nothing On feeling the ground
however, stuck my finger into something soft, which
found have peculiar etid smell like nothing tha
had the laboratory any where else Neft
morning examined the place and found about so pounds
Of BIC wn jelly which had descended in gobular FORM but
had broken by the fall and formed small segment OF
sphere. Having of either weighing or analysing
this atter passed il By with the ecure that II was
substance which forms these meieors or falling stars
The altitude Of this could not be more than one hnn
| dred yards
The next fell in the pail of his milk k-maid, de-
posting the same kind of jelly without her OBJ
serving its fall. The only effect of the shock
was to throw the pail little on its side.
The third ha, presented itself abou, the latter end
OF July last year Having gone toward the stable
IL and - o'clock Of very clear night noticed all OF a
sudden that the East end Of the coachhour presented oE
liant light and tnrnng look for the most splendid
meteor which had nearly half leaving bril-
liant streak OF light after descending directly toward
me- angle OF about IS degrees when it Immediately
ceased shine There goes another jelly said te myself
| which must hunt up in the morning
Mr. Bennett marked the spot where it fell, and
next morning proceeded with lad to find 1t. 1t
had fallen farther off than he expected, and he
says:
passed four fields without success when at the lower
End of liz fifth field piece of meadow land full half a
mile from where stood 10 my wonder and admiration
discovered little the right OF the line OF search body
Of dark brown ey exactly like side of lens
three feet in diameter, but broken many pieces by the
fall The stencil nsutteable This body OF Jelly
before le formed globe of from ten TO twelve
inches in diameter if not more. THIS Jelly, which lay on
the po, where it fell unit, the 18th Of September following
entirely DESTROYED all the grass under and near IT, Now
think that taking the base line Of right angled triangle at
double the distance from where Stood and this hay
ing formation the head of the perpendicular It's attitude
must counted least mile, as its downward course
would the hypothenuse of the tEang for some
distance.
| put piece of this Jelly the Goals the odor from
which drove the from the kitchen There
neither flame smoke yet extinguhed the Goals where
it lay Being very busy the time did attempt de.
termne It's constituents It's fracture was not however like
that of iely, but appeared to break into cubes.
There is possibility Of this meteor having had its origin
much higher in the than here supposed as It's
ocy appeared BE- very great but heard explosion
by which It's distance and altitude might have been de-
termned the elevation Of mile is but hypothesis The
Of the 18th August l7S3 described by Mr. Caveo
in the Philosophical Transactions of London for 1854 he
places by vague data elevation from the
earth of 56 miles and petends have heard the explosion
| twelve minutes after, at l30 miles distance!
cal result Of the combustion discharge Of large portion
of gasses hroug electrical agent? The universal down
ward tendency OF their motion shows that their specific
gravity much than that Of the atmosphere and that
they therefore must be formed at the moment OF discharge
The editor puts directly after this, the account
Of the shower of flesh and blood that fell lately
in South Carolina, and says perhaps Mr.. BIS
theory will explain it. There may be something
| in this; and the two substances noticed in each
case may result from the same cause, and that SO
often laughed at under the name of shower of
flesh and blood" be very philosophic and true
thing after all.
But that Mr.. B. is mistaken III calling them
meteors in the common acceptaton OF that term,
we have no hesitation in saying. Those fiery
masses that pass so rapidly through the air, ac-
companied often with loud detonations and throw
ing off fragments that reach the earth, are some
thing entirely different. Those fragments are stone
and are hurled SO violently as 10 be embedded in
the soil. The meteor described by Mr.. Cavello
in l7S3, and to which Mr. Bennett refers, we take
to be an entirely different thing from ordinary
shooting stars. That it had a great altitude is
also highly probable, for some OF them most Ger
tainly have. heheavy stones which they have fire.
quenty hurled to the earth, would have effec
tuallv demolished we think, the maids milk
pail The substance of the meteoric showers Sc
called, pretends to know. They are sup
posed, however, to be entirely different from the
ordinary shooting stars.
The falling star that any one may see of a clear
night, has long been regarded by philosophers a:
a gelatinous matter inflated with phosphurettee
hydrogen gas; and the splendid meteor of Mr.
Bennett was doubtless one of these ordinary
shooting stars appearing very bright by its prox
Unity. The gelatinous substance he found, ac
cords with the experience and theory of others
and indeed is a very singular and curious cor
roboraton of them.
That these substances must be formed at tht
moment of discharge, we do not think necessary
Their ascent and descent would depend entirely
on the amount of gas they contain.
The idea of accounting for the showers Of hesf
and blood on this theory is certainly new to US
and deserves, we think, second thought.
MEssRs. EpIroHs,-There has be en- much said recent
reference to the ow Of wages and the few avenue
open for obtain honest livelihood have Ion
iet tat TINS should claim the special attention Of tn
philanhropt and Christian aud though present We ma
not haye personal interest IN the subject yet every
person feel the various change, of 70,
the life Of one idua that the next ,urn
the wheel may place them where they toll for thei
daily bread This subject ought only to interest seams
tressesbut methnks that those who now think il 70
their interest to keep their wages low as possible
using buta shoghted policy, for all Of US can call
MUD many Of acquantances that yesterday were the en-
poyers, who to-day the employed
Ifthese things So all have much stake here and IN
question what be done A few in III
daily papers will accomplish it, nor simply saying