SHOOTING STARS. 277 



metallic particles resembling in appearance iron that has been 

 reduced to an impalpable powder. Some careful investigations 

 into this part of the subject in iS;^ and 1876, led to the 

 following conclusions : — 



I. " That iron exists in all the dust which has accumulated in 

 church towers by the winds of ages. 



II. That this iron floating in the atmosphere is trapped in its 

 fall by the snow in which it is always found. 



III. That facts tend to prove its celestial origin. 



IV. That its globular form indicates that it has been raised to 

 a high temperature. 



V. That it plays an important part in the physics of the 

 globe, but that science in order to fully understand it, should seek 

 to estimate the phenomenon quantitatively and study it in its 

 variations." 



Thus we have no doubt as to what becomes of the infinite 

 number of falling stars that enter the atmosphere. Coming from 

 distant space, perhaps beyond the orbits of Uranus, and sweeping 

 in extended rings around the sun, they meet the earth at parts and 

 are converted by the resistence of her atmosphere into dust that 

 falls, and henceforth forms part of her surface. Thus are these 

 shooting stars transformed from a sidereal to a terrestrial form. 

 Experiments and analyses have shown that certain rocks contain 

 the same metallic spherules as the cosmical dust found in church 

 towers and in snow. Hence there is here a connecting link 

 between astronomy and geology, even as spectrum analysis gives us 

 a connection with chemistry. Celestial observations of shooting 

 stars will, hereafter, have to be considered in relation with the 

 researches going on as to cosmical dust in our church towers and 

 its occurrence in certain rocks. Whether or not these shooting 

 stars have a purely astronomical origin or not is by no means 

 settled. At some former epoch of the earth's history, vast dis- 

 ruptions or volcanic disturbances may have occurred, and fragments 

 may have become detached and deflected into orbits around the 



