160 THE BORDERLAND OF SCIENCE. 



tended of all those which the earth encounters, the 

 conclusion may fairly be accepted that there are meteor 

 systems whose members travel to distances exceeding 

 even the enormous range of the August meteors. 



But there is evidence of meteoric ranges compared 

 with which the distances just referred to are literally as 

 nothing. It is in considering such ranges, as we shall 

 presently see, that we touch on the question of seed- 

 bearing meteors. 



When as yet astronomers had no proof that any 

 meteors travel on such wide paths as we have men- 

 tioned, no great reliance was placed upon the estimates 

 of meteoric velocities as deduced from actual observa- 

 tion. The acknowledged difficulty of the task of 

 observation, and some seeming discrepancies in the 

 results, were held sufficient reasons for regarding those 

 estimates as unreliable. For if the estimates were 

 accepted, some very startling conclusions had to be 

 accepted with them. Let it be remembered that a 

 body which crosses the earth's track cannot possibly 

 have a velocity exceeding a certain definite amount, 

 if it has reached the earth's course under the sole in- 

 fluence of the sun's attraction. If the sun draw in 

 meteors from surrounding space, then every one of 

 those meteors will show by its rate of motion that it 

 has been gathered in by the sun's might as a ruler of 

 matter. The planets, indeed, may help the sun to 

 some small extent; but as a rule we may leave 'their 

 influence out of consideration so far as meteoric 

 velocities are concerned. What opinion, however, are 



