136 SCENERY OF THE HEAVENS. 



most recent, which fell in a valley near the Cape of Good Hope, with the affidavits of 

 the witnesses, was communicated to the Royal Society by Sir John Herschel in March 

 ] 840. Previously to the descent of the aerolite, the usual sound of explosion was heard, and 

 some of the fragments falling upon grass caused it instantly to smoke, and were too hot to 

 admit of being touched. When, however, we consider the wide range of the ocean, and the 

 vast unoccupied regions of the globe, its mountains, deserts, and forests, we can hardly 

 fail to admit that the observed cases of descent must form but a small proportion of the 

 actual number ; and obviously in countries upon which the human race are thickly planted 

 many may escape notice through descending in the night, and will lie imbedded in the soil 

 till some accidental circumstance exposes their existence. Some too are no doubt com- 

 pletely fused and dissipated in the atmosphere, while others move by us horizontally as 

 brilliant lights, and pass into the depths of space. The volume of some of these passing 

 bodies is very great. One which travelled within twenty-five miles of the surface, and 

 cast down a fragment, was supposed to weigh upwards of half a million of tons. But for 

 its great velocity of about twenty miles in a second, the whole mass would have been 

 precipitated to the earth. 



In addition ta aerolites, properly so called, or bodies known to have come to us from 

 outlying space, large metallic masses exist in various, parts of the world, lying in insulated 

 situations, far remote from the abodes of civilisation, whose chemical composition is 

 closely analogous to that of the substances the descent of which has been witnessed. 

 These circumstances leave no doubt as to their common origin. Pallas discovered an 

 immense mass of malleable iron, mixed with nickel, at a considerable elevation on a 

 mountain of slate in Siberia, a site plainly irreconcileable with the supposition of art 

 having been there with its forges, even had it possessed the character of the common 

 iron. In one of the rooms of the British Museum there is a specimen of a large mass 

 which was found, and still remains, on the plain of Otumba, in the district of Buenos 

 Ayres. The specimen alone weighs 14001bs., and the weight of the whole mass, which 

 lies half buried in the ground, is computed to be thirteen tons. In the province of 

 Bahia, in Brazil, another block has been discovered weighing upwards of six tons. 

 Considering the situation of these masses, with the details of their chemical analysis, 

 the presumption is clearly warranted that they owe their origin to the same causes that 

 have formed and projected the aerolites to the surface. With reference to the Siberian 

 iron a general tradition prevails among the Tartars that it formerly descended from the 

 heavens. A curious extract, translated from the Emperor Tchangire's memoirs of his 

 own reign is given in a paper communicated to the Royal Society, which speaks of the 

 fall of a metallic mass in India. The prince relates, that in the year 1620 (of our era) a 

 violent explosion was heard at a village in the Punjaub, and at the same time a luminous 

 body fell through the air. on the earth. The officer of the district immediately repaired 

 to the spot where it was said the body fell, and having found the place to be still hot, he 

 caused it to be dug. He found that the heat kept increasing till they reached a lump. of 

 iron violently hot. This was afterwards sent to court, where the Emperor had it weighed 

 in his presence^ and ordered it to be forged into a sabre, a knife, and a dagger. After a 

 trial the workmen reported that it was not malleable, but shivered under the hammer ; 

 and it required to be mixed with one third part of common iron, after which the mass 

 was found to make excellent blades. The royal historian adds, that on the incident of 

 this iron of lightning being manufactured, a poet presented him with a. distich that, 

 " during his reign the earth attained order and regularity ; that raw iron fell from 

 lightning, which was, by his world-subduing authority, converted into a dagger, a knife, 

 and two sabres." / 



A multitude of theories have been devised to account for the origin of these remarkable 





