THE GREAT BOMBARDMENT. 515 



various angles producing a variety of forms known as W idmanstatten 

 figures which a few years ago formed the basis of a singular sensation. 

 The figures were supposed to be fossil shells and various animals of a 

 diminutive size which once populated the wrecked world of which 

 the meteor was assumed to be a part. These meteoric animals from 

 space were named and classified by several observers, who were 

 finallv forced to acknowledge that their creations were the fanciful 

 markings of crystallization. 



Another class of meteorites (meteoric iron stones) may be de- 

 scribed as spongy masses of nickeliferous iron in whose pores are 

 found grains of chryosite and other silicates. A type of these bodies 

 is the meteor of Pallas, which was discovered by him in 1772. The 

 third class of meteoric stones are those in which the stony or silicous 

 predominates. As a rule they contain scattered metallic grains, but 

 certain ones, as the aerolite which fell at Gara, France, in 1806, con- 

 tain metallic constituents. 



The aerolites present an attractive appearance when made into 

 sections, showing crystals and splinterlike fragments, and under the 

 glass seem to be made up of many minute spheres ranging from those 

 the size of a cherry down to others invisible to the naked eye. The 

 minerals prominent in their composition are chrysolite, bronzite, 

 augite, enstatite, feldspar, chronite, etc., showing a marked similarity 

 to the eruptive rocks so well known on the earth. The collections of 

 famous meteorites in the various museums of the world have con- 

 stantly been examined and studied with a view to determine their 

 origin, the question being a fascinating one to layman and scientist. 

 Astronomers in the past have variously answered the question. 

 The flying fragments were believed by some to be the wreckage of 

 other worlds. Planets had perhaps collided and been rent asunder 

 in former ages, and space filled with the flying fragments. Others 

 thought that meteors were molten matter thrown from the earth or 

 moon. All these theories have been relinquished in view of evidence 

 of a more or less convincing character pointing to the conclusion that 

 the bombardment of the earth is one of the results of the disintegra- 

 tion of comets. In other words, cometary matter flying not always 

 blindly through space, but in the orbit of the comet of which it 

 originally formed a part, constituting the missiles. 



It is known that the meteors were formed in a region where air 

 and water were absent. It is equally evident that life was not a 

 factor in the past history of the bodies, though it must be acknowl- 

 edged that the hydrocarbons resembling terrestrial bitumens which 

 are found in some meteorites suggest the possibility of vegetable life. 

 These comets, the mysterious bodies which seem to be roving through 

 space, misconceived planets, as it were, forced into the world half 



