Personal Narrative Of Travels To The Equinoctial Regions Of America During The Years 1799-1804 - Volume 1 - By Alexander Von Humboldt And Aime Bonpland.
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The Extreme Purity Of The Atmosphere Which Constantly
Prevails In The Low Regions During The Dry Season, Counterbalances
The Elevation Of Site And The Rarity Of The Air On The Table-Lands.
The Elevated Strata Of The Atmosphere, When They Envelope The
Ridges Of Mountains, Undergo Rapid Changes In Their Transparency.
The night of the 11th of November was cool and extremely fine.
From
half after two in the morning, the most extraordinary luminous
meteors were seen in the direction of the east. M. Bonpland, who
had risen to enjoy the freshness of the air, perceived them first.
Thousands of bolides and falling stars succeeded each other during
the space of four hours. Their direction was very regular from
north to south. They filled a space in the sky extending from due
east 30 degrees to north and south. In an amplitude of 60 degrees
the meteors were seen to rise above the horizon at east-north-east
and at east, to describe arcs more or less extended, and to fall
towards the south, after having followed the direction of the
meridian. Some of them attained a height of 40 degrees, and all
exceeded 25 or 30 degrees. There was very little wind in the low
regions of the atmosphere, and that little blew from the east. No
trace of clouds was to be seen. M. Bonpland states that, from the
first appearance of the phenomenon, there was not in the firmament
a space equal in extent to three diameters of the moon, which was
not filled every instant with bolides and falling stars. The first
were fewer in number, but as they were of different sizes, it was
impossible to fix the limit between these two classes of phenomena.
All these meteors left luminous traces from five to ten degrees in
length, as often happens in the equinoctial regions. The
phosphorescence of these traces, or luminous bands, lasted seven or
eight seconds. Many of the falling stars had a very distinct
nucleus, as large as the disk of Jupiter, from which darted sparks
of vivid light. The bolides seem to burst as by explosion; but the
largest, those from 1 to 1 degree 15 minutes in diameter,
disappeared without scintillation, leaving behind them
phosphorescent bands (trabes) exceeding in breadth fifteen or
twenty minutes. The light of these meteors was white, and not
reddish, which must doubtless be attributed to the absence of
vapour and the extreme transparency of the air. For the same
reason, within the tropics, the stars of the first magnitude have,
at their rising, a light decidedly whiter than in Europe.
Almost all the inhabitants of Cumana witnessed this phenomenon,
because they had left their houses before four o'clock, to attend
the early morning mass. They did not behold these bolides with
indifference; the oldest among them remembered that the great
earthquakes of 1766 were preceded by similar phenomena. The
Guaiqueries in the Indian suburb alleged "that the bolides began to
appear at one o'clock; and that as they returned from fishing in
the gulf, they had perceived very small falling stars towards the
east." They assured us that igneous meteors were extremely rare on
those coasts after two o'clock in the morning.
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