THE MESSENGERS OF THE GODS 275 



parently been confirmed in a very simple way. Merely by 

 melting down a quantity of long exposed snow, in filtering it 

 out are found once molten globules of iron and other materials, 

 as well as larger bits. 



Occasionally, however, there comes a shooting-star of great 

 bulk which plunges through the atmosphere like a glowing ball, 

 to bury itself in the earth with a loud report. These are the 

 great meteoric stones, some of which have been known to weigh 

 many tons. Fine specimens are usually to be found in the 

 natural history museums. They may be assayed or analysed 

 chemically, precisely like any other bit of rock. They contain 

 no new kind of material, no element which is not found upon 

 the earth. If therefore they come from the far depths of space, 

 the material of the universe is all the same. 



It was a splendid surmise. But what reason have we for 

 supposing that they do come from outside our solar system, 

 and what have they to do with comets ? The curious answer 

 is that these meteorites or shooting-stars are simply little 

 comets ; the great comets seem merely vast swarms of meteorites. 

 If the comets come from beyond the confines of our system, 

 the meteorites probably do the same. We have fair evidence 

 that with some of them this is the fact. 



It is strange how little interest the subject seemed to have 

 inspired until the discovery made by Professor H. A. Newton, 

 of Yale University in America. Tracing out all the records of 

 meteoric showers which he could find, Professor Newton arrived 

 at the conclusion that some of these showers at least had a 

 definite period. In particular, there seemed one shoal of 

 meteors through which the earth passed, in November, once in 

 every thirty- three years. He could find an apparent record of this 

 swarm back to the year 599 A.D. Their last appearance, when he 

 had counted them up, was in 1833. Following the path of Halley, 

 he boldly predicted their return in 1866 or the year following. 



They came just as he had calculated. They did not appear 

 again in 1899, but came straggling along two or three years 

 later, and the display was far less brilliant than in '66. It 

 seemed as if the shoal had to some extent been broken up. 

 Nevertheless there seemed no mistaking the fact that these shoot- 

 ing-stars move in an orbit like the planets. When this especial 

 shower appears, its radial and axial point in the heavens is in the 

 constellation Leo ; hence their name of the November Leonids. 



