PORTION OP THE COSMOS. AEROLITES. 435 



has only a velocity of translation of 4'1 German, or 16 '4 

 English geographical miles (Kosmos,.Bd. i. S. 127 and 400 ; 

 English edit. p. 112 and xxv. Note 68). Corresponding 

 observations by Julius Schmidt, at Bonn, and Heis, at Aix-la- 

 Chapelle, in 1849, gave, indeed, as the minimum velocity of 

 a shooting star, which was seen at a perpendicular height of 

 48 miles above St. Goar, and moved in the direction of the 

 Lake of Laach, only 14 English geographical miles. Ac- 

 cording to other observations of the same observers, and of 

 Houzeau at Mons, however, the velocity of four shooting 

 stars was found between 46 and 95 English geographical 

 miles in a second, therefore twice and five times as great as 

 the planetary velocity of the Earth. The strongest evidence 

 of a cosmical origin is afforded by this result, taken in con- 

 nection with the circumstance that periodical shooting stars 

 continue for several hours to proceed, independently of the 

 Earth's rotation, from one and the same star, although the 

 direction of the star may not be that towards which the 

 Earth is then moving. 



According to existing measurements, balls of fire appear 

 on the whole to move more slowly than shooting stars. 

 When meteoric stones drop from fire-balls, it is deserving of 

 remark to how small a depth they sink into the ground. 

 The mass, weighing 276 pounds, which feil on the 7th of 

 November, 1492, at Ensisheim, in Alsace, only penetrated 

 to a depth of about 3 feet ; and the same was the case with 

 the aerolite of Braunau, on the 14th of July, 1847. I only 

 know of two meteoric stones which tore up the loose soil to 

 a depth respectively of 6 and 1 8 feet ; the aerolite of Castro 

 Villari, in the Abruzzi, of the 9th of February, 1583, and 



