THE AUSTRALIAN MUSEUM MAGAZINE. 



311 



Meteorites. 



By T. Hodgk Smith. 



NUxMEROUS attempts have lx>en 

 made of late years to receive 

 messages from the planet Mars, 

 but, as a matter of fact, we have long 

 been receiving messages probably from 

 far greater distances ; they have been 

 coming to our earth from time im- 

 memorial and have been collected and 

 carefully ])reserved in museums. With 

 the exception of s])ectroscopic analysis 

 they afford the only real evidence of the 

 composition of things outside our at- 

 mosphere. Science has given the name 

 meteorite to these messages, which are 

 in reality masses of iron and mineral 

 matter. Everyone has seen on a clear 

 night shooting stars or meteors ; these 

 are identical with meteorites, and as 



many as fifteen to twenty million enter 

 our atmosphere every day. Only a 

 fewever reachthe earth's surface, forthe 

 majority are dissipated by the intense 

 heat ])ro(luced by friction with the 

 atm<)s])here, while others are travelling 

 in such a direction and at such enor- 

 mous speed that they are able to keep 

 on their course and resist the attraction 

 of the earth. 



Our ancestors looked upon the stars 

 as the abode of the gods, and conse- 

 quently the shooting stars, or falUng 

 meteorites, signified to them the ar- 

 rival on earth of a god or his image. 

 Thus meteorites were worshipped, and 

 they were kept as sacred objects in 

 specially built temples. The early 



The " Mount Stirling "jMeteorite (siderite) found at Mount Stirling. 130 miles east of Perth, 



Western Australia. Observe the irregular shape and characteristic 



depressions termed " thumb-marks." 



[Photo.— G. C. Clutton. 



