Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1856-05-15

pouy VI u ShootlnS sCar must become intensely |
heated simply BY its friction with the atmos.
phere when rushing through at the rate Of
| ffty-tour thousand miles an hour
The air itself is luminous when sufficiently
compressed, and this fact may account for the
family visible wake left by those meteors which
penetrate into its lower and donser layers A /
very remarkable star Of this latter class annear-
ed over the Shetland Isles not many years ago,
with splendoar greater than that of the full
moon, and pursued its rapid waVsin i.,l
as far as The overhead Of Rome when it split
into three parts, each followed by u tail. 1t
was reckoned to pass fifty miles above the
ground, and to fly some thirty miles ia second
of time,
Lastly, if the course of these shooting stars
happens to be moro or less direct towards the
surface of the earth, they cannot escape being
drawnto it by the great law whcih keeps up the !
harmonious movements Of the world and, when
they thus visit US, they reveal to us their sub
stance. Although this is always solid, few
accidents of serious nature havo attended the !
descent of aerolities: in nearly three hundred
recorded instanc s, only four persons are known
to have been killed. A few years ago one was
observed to burst neatly over the town of IIaup-
tlraustadt, in Bohemi, and one portion dashed
through the roof of house in which two lit
tie children were asleep, within few feet of
their bed, but did no worse than lrighten them
When dug out, the stone proved to be as large
as an ordinary cannon shot
There is now no doubt Of these meteoritcs
being shooting stars; but the question has not
been settled What are shooting stars On
the contrary, the more VIC inquire, the more
the marvel increases the tale becomes Intricate,
and we are taily launched into world Of in
quiry boundless and tracklcss What shall we
say to those flying masses of matter which we
call shooting stars! Science tells us unerringly,
if they are Independent Of the earth they must
be little planets themselves, performing regu-
lar progress rolnd the sun us we do, and nyis-
ible to us except when they venture near our
atmosphere Now, it is known that, although
we are seeing shooting stars at all times of the
year, yet there are periods--on the tenth Of
August and the thirteenth OF Novcniher-whcn
they are abundant; and, at the former
date, especially, regular in their appearances -
Watchers at Paris and other places on this night
have counted, during one hour, as many as one
hundred and eighty-Ioar sach appearances 80
bn io,, cf
November, 1888 as to strike many persons with
terror--peop!e ran to their doors atfrightcd,
CRYING that the world was on fire. The display
must have been very great; the shower of fire
was bright enough to make small Objects yis-
bic. and some of the metcors assumed the brill
iancy offro- balls. Professor Plinstcd says that
this shower was witnessed from the North Amer
lean lakes to the West Indies, and from Central
Mexico to the Dermudas, and that its height
above the earth was two Thousand two hundred
and thirty-eight miles. In India, likewise, a
similarly gorgeous display WAS witnessed four
years ago
From many such observations, there is IA we'll
grounded belief among those who have studied
the subject, that, on the tenth of August and
thirteenth of November we pass through an
innumerable crowd or ring Of those strange
bodies; ALL like our globe obeying the same
central authority, and travelling on in d circle
about us large as that of our earth, but crossing
it at that part which corresponds to the above
date. Were it not for those benifcent laws by
which all things are kept in bounds, there
seems to be no reason why, at these times Of the
year, we should not be cnycoped in such an
awful shower of mcteoric stones as to make woe
to the inhabitants of the earth. Guesses worthy
Of belief have been offered, that our planet il
nearly at the edge of at least one vast disc o.
these meteors that they increase in numbers
towards the sun or centre Of the disc, and thai
the reflected light from the collective myrids
like notes in the sunbeam, causes the curious
light sometimes seen Immediately before or af
ter sunset at spring tide, stretching up from
the direction of the sun high into the heavens
in the shape of cone or sugar-loaf. Ii sucf
ideas are true, we must feel thankful that We
:, are not dwellers in Venus and Mercury, which
must of course be in the very thick Of tht
trouble.
Will the reader ask Us still-what are shoot
ing stars We cannot tell we see they arr
; made up of substances found at our feet but
as to how it comes to pass that innumcrabl
, hordes of shapeless stony masscs--smal ant
great-hurry pell-mell round the sun, engross
ing a region nearly four hundred of million o
miles across, no man has yet ventured an opin
ion which is able to satisfy the Judgment o
mankind