The continual influx of cosmical matter into the heart of the vortex in ever-varying quantities, and speedily dispersed along the central plane, according to its density, must necessarily give rise to another phenomenon to which we have not yet alluded. Scarcely a night passes without exhibiting this phenomena in some degree, and it is generally supposed that the hourly average of shooting stars is from five to ten, taking the whole year round. The matter composing these meteors we regard as identical with that mass of diffused atoms which forms a stratum conforming to the central plane of the vortex, and whose partial resistance to the radial stream occasions that luminosity which we call the zodial light. These atoms may coalesce into spherical aggregations, either as elastic gas, or as planetary dust, and, passing outward on the radial stream, will occasionally become involved in the vortex of our own globe; and being drawn inwards by the polar current, and acted on by the earth's gravity, be impelled with great velocity through the rarefied air of the upper atmosphere. That meteors are more abundant about the time of meridian passage of a vortex (or, perhaps, more correctly speaking, from six to twelve hours afterwards, when the current of restoration penetrates the atmosphere), well accords with the author's observations. It is about this time that high winds may be looked for, according to the theory; and it has ever been a popular opinion, that these meteors are a sign of windy weather. Even in Virgil's time, the same belief prevailed, as a passage in his Georgics would seem to indicate.
"Sape etiam stellas, vento impendente, videbis Præcipites coelo labi; noctisque per umbram Flammarum longos à tergo albescere tractus;"
Virgil was a close observer of nature, and commences a storm with the wind at south, "Quo signo caderent Austri;" just as we have represented the usual course when these vortices pass near the observer's latitude. It is also a well-known fact, that after a display of meteors, (and we are now speaking of ordinary displays, and not of the great showers,) the temperature falls considerably. It is not uncommon also, that meteors are more abundant during an auroral display, as they ought to be by the theory. We must, however, exempt from this influence those solid meteors which sometimes come into collision with the earth, and afterwards grace the cabinets of the curious. These bodies may be considered microscopic planets, moving in stated orbits with planetary velocity, and bear strongly on the explosive theory of Olbers, as fully detailed by Sir David Brewster.