Alexandria gazette. [volume] (Alexandria, D.C.) 1834-1974, 1866-11-08

imInary as Tue supyeCt Hlii nave w 6o
FIRE the Legislature for final action, the State
bping largely interested in the work, and the
action of that body being necessary ITO make
valid such transfer. & 80 --'-&~ -
THE SHOOTING STARS. --Sir. John Herschell
savs:-''There are circumstances in the history
If shooting stars, which very strongly corrob-
crate the idea of their extraneous or cosmicat
origin, and their circulation round the sun in
definite orbits. On several occasions they
have been observed to appear 10 unusual, and,
indeed astonishing numbers, SOFAS to- convey
the idea of shower Of rockets, or ofs:snow
fakes falling, and brilliantly illuminating the
whole heavens for hours together, and that not
in one locality, but over whole continents and
oceans, and even in one instance) in both
hemispheres. s8 Esa@.< s<@assaz-as@
"Now It'll extremely remarkable that, when
ever this great display has been exhibited lat
least in modern times,) it has uniformally
happened in the night between the 18th and
18Th, or on that between the 18th and l4th, Of
November. @yfss5g 5rs
"Such cases occurred in 1899, 1923, 1882,
1888 and 1884 On tracing back the records
of similar phenomena, it has been aseertained,
moreover, that more often those Identical
nights, but sometimes those Immediately ada
cent, have, been, time outTofmiud, habitually
signalized by such exhibitions. @ s<r ags
Another annually recurring epoch in which,
though far less brilliant, the display of meteors
is more certain (for that of November is often
interrupted for a great many years, is that OF
the 10th of August, on which night, and on
the 9th aud 18th, numerous, large, and bright
shooting stars, with trains, are almost sure to
be seen. Other epochs cf periodlcrecarrence,
less marked than the above, have also been to
acertain extent established. ea
Sits a fact established by the most indispu,
table evidence, that stony masses and Jumps
ofiron do, occasionally, and indeed by no means
unirequently, fall upon the earth from the
higher regions fcur atmosphere twbere 1t IS
obviously impossible they can have been gener
ated) and that they have done so from the
earliest times of history. ~
'sFour instances are recorded Of persons being
killed by their fall.
"a block ofstone fell at Hgos Potamos, 3.
c. 465, as large as two millstones; another at
Narni. in 92l, projected, like rock, four feet
above the surface of the river, into which It
was seen to fall. The Emperor Jehangire had
sword forged from a mass OF meteorlc iron
which fell in 1920, at Jahlinder, in he-Punjab.
The planetary nature of these bodies seems at
length to be almost generally admitted. The
heat which they possess when fallen, the isneous
phenomena which accompany them, theirs
posion on arriving within the denserregions Of
our atmosphere, &c, are all sufficiently ac
counted for on physical principle, by The con-
densation of the air before them, in consequence
Of their enormous velocity, and by the rela-
tons of air in highly attenuated state to heat.
besides stony and metallic masses, however,
til probable that bodies of very different ma
lures, Or at least of aggregation, are thus cir
culating round the sun. The remarkable me
tsor of August IS, 1885, traversed the whole OF
Europe, from Shetland to Rome, with veloc-
iy of about 30 miles per second, at a height OF
5Omiles from the surface of the earth, with
light greatly surprising that of the full moon,
and a real diameter of fully halt 4 mile. Yet
With these vast dimensions, it changed It's form
Vsbly, and at length quietly separated into
several distinct bodies, accompanying each
other in parallel courses, and each followed by
tail or train. The most connected and syste-
matte series of observations of them are those
Of Benzenberg and Brandes, who, by noting
the instant and apparent places OF appearance
and extinction, as well as the precise apparent
paths among the stars OF indigidual meteors,
from the extremities of measured base hne
nearly $4,000 feet in length, were led to con.
GUIDE that their heights at the instant of their
appearance and disappearance, vary from To
1 mlles to $40, and their relative veloclties from
iHto st mics per second; veloclties so great as
yearly to indicate one independents planetary
circulation round the sun.
-~p~-+---- r's1.a 80 .
oUR YOUNG MEN MOVING DRIVE re-
sset to announce to their numerous friends the
departure from this city, of two Of its most
pvpuar, and worthy young merchants, We
1iade to Messrss. Robert +. Knox and ".
Meth Armstead, the tormerof whomis tomake
memphis, Tennessee, his future home, while
lax n