The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1898-11-13
OUR EqRTH WILL SEE SHOWERS
OF METEORS THIS MONTH
It's Course for the Next Thirty Days Will
Lie Hlong a Path Where There IRE
SWarfns of Them.

tenn on the morning of November IA,
the passage lasted SO short a time that
while England had a magnificent dis
play of falling stars none was seen in
the United States. On the other hand,
in 1867, when a display of hardly in
ferior splendor was seen, America
caught the shower and Europe missed
it almost entirely.
Probably the most remarkable of all
meteoric showers seen in this country
occurred on November II, 1888, in the
early morning, when the sky seemed
fairly ablaze with stars. An observer
remarked that che never saw snow
flakes thicker in a storm than were the
meteorS in the sky at some moments
During the five or six hours of the
display 100000 meteors were counted by
observers in Boston. The colored peo-
pie in the Southern States were over
come with terror, and supposed the end
Of the world was at hand.
planter was aroused from slumber
by one Of his slaves, who knocked at
the door, shrieking: Get up, massa;
The angel Gabriel will have done blown
his trump if you amt up soon.''
In "Starland' Professor Bell relates
the experience of a Mr.. Kirkwood of
South Carolina, who describes the
effect of the meteoric display on the
plantation workers as follows:
81 was suddenly awakened by the
most distressing cries that ever fell on
my ears. Shrieks of horror and cries
for mercy could be heard, and, while
earnestly listening for the cause, I
heard a faint voice near the door call
ing my name / arose, and, taking my
sword, stood at the door. At this mo-
ment heard the same voice beSeeching
me to arise, and crying out that the
world was on fire.
II then opened the door, and it is
70 iolN 80
most-the awfulness of the scene or the
distressed cries of the men. Upward of
a hundred lay PROSTATE on the ground
some speeches., and some, with the
bitterest cries, raising their hands and
praying for mercy. The scene was truly
awful, for never did rain fall much
thicker than the meteors fell toward
the earth
The path pursued by the Leonids is
millions of miles long and thousands of
miles in width, the particles in the
swarm being probably only small peb-
bles, a few ounces in weight, and Sepa-
rated from each other bv a distance of
two or three miles. Each pebble pur-
sues an independent path around the
sun, and is as submissive to the con-
trolling law of gravity as the more Sc
date members of the solar family-the
planets.
Meteors make their presence known
to us by fitful flashes of light, seen at
height of eighty to hundred miles, the
length Of their path varying from fifty
to five hundred miles, and the velocity
from forty to ten miles a second at the
moment when they first become visible.
diminishing to one or two miles per Sec
ond at the time they disappear.
comet must be very small indeed
which has not a head $4,000 miles or so
in extent, so the head of the coming
comet might be expected to extend far
beyond the 10000 miles separating its
track from the earth. In other words,
the earth would probably pass through
the outer portions of the comets head.
The Andromedes are of a rudy hue
and with only short trains moving
slowly as compared with the Leonids,
since they drift along in the same di-
rection as the earth.