were observed, possessing very little motion, and leaving very little length of trace. Further off, the motions were more rapid and the traces longer; and most rapid of all, and longest in their traces, were those which originated but a few degrees above the horizon, and descended down to it." In the fifth place, had the meteors come from a point twenty-two hundred and thirty-eight miles from the earth, and derived their apparent velocity from gravity alone, then it would be found, by a very easy calculation, that their actual velocity was about four miles per second; but, as already intimated, the velocity observed was estimated much greater than could be accounted for on these principles; not less, indeed, than fourteen miles per second, and, in some instances, much greater even than this. The motion of the earth in its orbit is about nineteen miles per second; and the most reasonable supposition we can make, at present, to account for the great velocity of the meteors, is, that they derived a relative motion from the earth's passing rapidly by them,--a supposition which is countenanced by the fact that they generally tended _westward_ contrary to the earth's motion in its orbit. In the sixth place, _the meteors consisted of combustible matter, and took fire, and were consumed, in traversing the atmosphere_. That these bodies underwent combustion, we had the direct evidence of the senses, inasmuch as we saw them burn. That they took fire in the _atmosphere_, was inferred from the fact that they were not luminous in their original situations in space, otherwise, we should have seen the body from which they emanated; and had they been luminous before reaching the atmosphere, we should have seen them for a much longer period than they were in sight, as they must have occupied a considerable time in descending towards the earth from so great a distance, even at the rapid rate at which they travelled. The immediate consequence of the prodigious velocity with which the meteors fell into the atmosphere must be a powerful condensation of the air before them, retarding their progress, and producing, by a sudden compression of the air, a great evolution of heat. There is a little instrument called the _air-match_, consisting of a piston and cylinder, like a syringe, in which we strike a light by suddenly forcing down the piston upon the air below. As the air cannot escape, it is suddenly compressed, and gives a spark sufficient to light a piece of tinder at the bottom of the cylinder. Indeed, it is a well-known fact, that, whenever air is suddenly and forcibly compressed, heat is elicited; and, if by such a compression as may be given by the hand in the air-match, heat is evolved sufficient to fire tinder, what must be the heat evolved by the motion of a large body in the atmosphere, with a velocity so immense. It is common to resort to electricity as the agent which produces the heat and light of shooting