ORGANIC REMAINS IN METEORIC STONES. 83 



exceedingly fine clay, sometimes colored red by oxide of iron, some- 

 times chocolate by manganese oxide, and containing with Foraminifera 

 occasionally large numbers of siliceous Radiolaria. These strata seem 

 to accumulate with extreme slowness : this is inferred from the com- 

 parative abundance of whales' bones and fishes' teeth, and from the 

 presence of minute spherical particles, supposed by Mr. Murray to be 

 of cosmic origin in fact, to be the dust of meteorites, which in the 

 course of ages have fallen on the ocean. Such particles no doubt 

 occur over the whole surface of the earth, but on land they soon oxi- 

 dize, and in shallow water they are covered up by other deposits. An- 

 other interesting result of recent deep-sea explorations has been to 

 show that the depths of the ocean are no mere barren solitudes, as was 

 until recent years confidently believed, but, on the contrary, present 

 us many remarkable forms of life. We have, however, as yet but 

 thrown here and there a ray of light down into the ocean abysses : 



" Nor can so short a time sufficient be, 

 To fathom the vast depths of Nature's sea," 



{Concluded in the December number.) 



THE DISCOVERY OF ORGANIC REMAINS IN METE- 

 ORIC STONES. 



By FEANCIS BIKGHAM. 



THE great problem, whether or not other celestial bodies besides 

 our own planet are or in past ages have been inhabited by animate 

 beings, must be a subject of the deepest interest to every thinking 

 being. This question has for some time past been answered in the 

 affirmative with great probability. The complete analogy of physical 

 conditions which has been proved to exist in some other planets of 

 our solar system, and which without doubt must also occur in innumer- 

 able planets of other solar systems, allowed the very probable deduc- 

 tion that not only on our own earth a higher organic process of evo- 

 lution has taken place. Still, this conclusion by analogy had hitherto 

 remained a simple, unproved hypothesis, although supported by good 

 evidence. 



But now at last it seems that we have obtained a direct answer to 

 this question, and that we are able to see with our own eyes the verit- 

 able remains of animate beings from another celestial body. 



It has been conclusively demonstrated that the meteoric stones 

 which from time to time drop down on the earth have at no time 

 formed a part of this planet, and it is now generally conceded that 

 they are the remains of other celestial bodies probably those of a 

 destroyed planet. 



