still inclined to think accidental.

We have not

yet had any communications from Sir John, so late as the month of November, 1836.

But the statements now recited make us curious as to what corroboration they have received from other witnesses of those appearances themselves, and what there is upon record as to any former time.

We have accounts of this November shower of shooting or falling stars in the year 1831, both from the country of the Ohio, and from the coast of Spain; and each with reference to the night of the 13th. The second of these two is from the commander of the French brig Le Loiret.

In the years 1832 and 1834, the showers were reported from the Atlantic, from the Red Sea, from Switzerland, and from several parts of England.

But November is not the only month of the year in which these showers have been seen, or

are to be looked for: "It is desirable to make observations between the 20th and 24th of April, as well as in November; for in 1803, on the 22nd of April, I believe, from one o'clock in the morning until three, shooting stars were seen in all directions in such great numbers, in Virginia and Massachusetts, as to be compared to a shower of sky-rockets."

Now there has been produced, since the writing of this sentence by M. Arago, an extraordinary extract from the pages of an old chronicle, actually containing an account of a shower of falling stars, witnessed in Europe, in the month of April, eight hundred and thirty years

ago.

An anonymous correspondent communicates the following curious passage to the French Academy of Sciences, almost copied from a Latin chronicle of Baldric, printed at Leipsic in 1807; "which adds," says the writer," another testimony concerning the occurrences of the

Already, be

phenomenon of Falling Stars: fore the Council of Claremont, the stars had announced the progress of Christianity; for innumerable eyes, in France, saw them fall from heaven, as thick as hail, on the 25th of April, 1095.""

CHAP. LVII.

OBSERVATION of the november asteroïds in Europe, IN THE MONTH OF NOVEMBER, 1836.

M. ARAGO bestows upon the luminous appearances of which we are now speaking, the name of asteroids, or star-like, or planet-like bodies; a name which, for many years, had been given and confined to the small new planets between Mars and Jupiter.

The reported appearance of these bodies in North America in the month of November, in the years 1831, 1832, 1833, and 1834, successively, having been the circumstance to fix the attention of the astronomers and philosophers of Europe upon their history, the distinctive name of" November asteroïds" has also been employed for them; and thus, perhaps, my little readers may be allowed to understand, that when they read of asteroïds in general, the five small

planets are generally intended; while, by the term" November asteroïds," it is the shooting or falling stars of the month of November that are spoken of.

We have no similar report from North America since the year 1834; but since that year (chiefly through the zeal of M. Arago,) much has been collected and published in Europe upon the subject.

It is stated that in November, 1835, a large and brilliant luminous body fell near Belley, in the department of Ain, in France, and set fire to a farm-yard; and that, at the same time, either this or another, but larger and more brilliant than Jupiter, was observed at Lille, where, upon exploding, it left in the sky a shower of sparks precisely similar to those which fall from a sky-rocket. Still, there is here but little that resembles the American phenomenon, the date excepted; though the description agrees remarkably with what we have seen related by