206 IN STARR Y REALMS. 



" Had the speed with which I entered your atmosphere 

 been more moderate had it been, for instance, not greater 

 than that of a rifle bullet, or even only four or five times 

 as fast, this plunge would not have been fatal to me. I 

 could have pierced through with comparative safety, and 

 then have tumbled down in my original form on the 

 ground. Indeed, on rare occasions something of this 

 kind does actually happen. Perhaps it is fortunate for 

 you dwellers on the earth that we shooting stars do gene- 

 rally become dissipated in the upper air. Were it not so, 

 the many thousands of us which would be daily pelting 

 down on your earth would introduce a new source of 

 anxiety into your lives. Fortunately for you, we dart in 

 at a speed of some twenty miles or more a second. Un- 

 fortunately for us, we learn that it is the ' pace which 

 kills.' 



" When from the freedom of open space I darted into 

 the atmosphere, I rubbed past every particle of air which 

 I touched in my impetuous flight, and in doing so I ex- 

 perienced the usual consequence of friction I was warmed 

 by the operation. If you rub a button on a board it will 

 become warm. If you rub two pieces of wood together 

 you can warm them, and you could even produce fire if 

 you possessed the cunning skill of some people whom you 

 are accustomed to speak of as savages. Nor need you be 

 surprised to find that I was warmed by merely rubbing 

 against air. If you visit a rifle range and pick up a 

 fragment of a bullet which has just struck the target you 

 will find it warm ; you will even find it so hot that you 

 will generally drop it. Now whence came this heat ? 

 The bullet was certainly cold ere the trigger was pulled. 



