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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Some Appeared To Fall Perpendicularly;
And It Was Expected Every Minute That They Would Drop Into The
Vessel." The Same Phenomenon Was Perceived Upon The American
Continent As Far As Latitude 30 Degrees 42 Minutes.
Fourth. In Labrador, at Nain (latitude 56 degrees 55 minutes), and
Hoffenthal (latitude 58 degrees 4 minutes); in Greenland,
At
Lichtenau (latitude 61 degrees 5 minutes), and at New Herrnhut
(latitude 64 degrees 14 minutes, longitude 52 degrees 20 minutes);
the Esquimaux were terrified at the enormous quantity of bolides
which fell during twilight at all points of the firmament, and some
of which were said to be a foot broad.
Fifth. In Germany, Mr. Zeissing, vicar of Ittetsadt, near Weimar
(latitude 50 degrees 59 minutes, longitude 9 degrees 1 minute
east), perceived, on the 12th of November, between the hours of six
and seven in the morning (half-past two at Cumana), some
falling-stars which shed a very white light. Soon after, in the
direction of south and south-west, luminous rays appeared from four
to six feet long; they were reddish, and resembled the luminous
track of a sky-rocket. During the morning twilight, between the
hours of seven and eight, the sky, in the direction of south-west,
was observed from time to time to be brightly illumined by white
lightning, running in serpentine lines along the horizon. At night
the cold increased and the barometer rose. It is very probable,
that the meteors might have been observed more to the east, in
Poland and in Russia.* (* In Paris and in London the sky was
cloudy. At Carlsruhe, before dawn, lightning was seen in the
north-west and south-east. On the 13th of November a remarkable
glare of light was seen at the same place in the south-east.)
The distance from Weimar to the Rio Negro is 1800 nautical leagues;
and from the Rio Negro to Herrnhut in Greenland, 1300 leagues.
Admitting that the same fiery meteors were seen at points so
distant from each other, we must suppose that their height was at
least 411 leagues. Near Weimar, the appearance like sky-rockets was
observed in the south and south-east; at Cumana, in the east and
east-north-east. We may therefore conclude, that numberless
aerolites must have fallen into the sea, between Africa and South
America, westward of the Cape Verd Islands. But since the direction
of the bolides was not the same at Labrador and at Cumana, why were
they not perceived in the latter place towards the north, as at
Cayenne? We can scarcely be too cautious on a subject, on which
good observations made in very distant places are still wanting. I
am rather inclined to think, that the Chayma Indians of Cumana did
not see the same bolides as the Portuguese in Brazil and the
missionaries in Labrador; but at the same time it cannot be doubted
(and this fact appears to me very remarkable) that in the New
World, between the meridians of 46 and 82 degrees, between the
equator and 64 degrees north, at the same hour, an immense number
of bolides and falling-stars were perceived; and that those meteors
had everywhere the same brilliancy, throughout a space of 921,000
square leagues.
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