THE ORGUKIL METFOA. 355 



tance of 20 leagues, it folio-ws that it must have been generated ef a magnitude 

 and intensity which afford -us the first appreciation of the grandeur of the 

 phenomenon. This appreciation is confirmed in another way. Most of the 

 observers have compared the size of the meteor to that of the moon, and though 

 possibly there is some exaggeration in this assertion, yet making all allowance 

 for this, we may ask what would be the real size of this ball of fire in order that 

 it might have at the distance in question the apparent diameter of the moon. It 

 is easily found that the diameter must be between four and five hundred metres. 

 According to this calculation, it was from four to five times larger than the Cathe- 

 dral of Paris, and we cannot help a sort of retrospective apprehension while think- 

 ing of the inhabitants of Montauban : 



Nons Tavous cette nuit, Madame, 6cbapp6 belle, 

 Un monde pr6s de nous a pass6 tout du long. . . . 



To tkese weighty results the calculations of M. Laussedat add a more serious 

 subject of astonishment. As the precise places and times of the appearance and 

 extinction of the meteor were noted, it has been possible to calculate the space it 

 passed through in a second of time, and this is foi^nd to have been 20,000 metres 

 or five leagues. Let any one represent to himself a distance of five leagues 

 between two places with which he is familiar, say from Paris to Versailles, and 

 then let him fancy himself carried over all this distance during a single pulsation, 

 he will then appreciate the velocity of our meteor and will recognise it as alto- 

 gether out of proportion to eueh as we are capable of producing or observing on 

 our earth. If we wish to find velocities at all comparable, it is not on the earth 

 but in the heavens that we must seek them. There Indeed all the stars move 

 with inconceivable velocity, the terrestrial globe itself, making the circuit of the 

 sun in a sidereal year, is whirled at the rate of 30 kilometres per second, and 

 with a velocity comparable to this did the meteor of Orgueil travel. From this 

 indication alone we might infer that it came to ua from the planetary spaces, and 

 that in fact it is a real star of which we are endeavoring to trace the history ; 

 but, as what we are about to say is the result of antecedent investigations, 

 common to all the asteroids of this kind,- it will be convenient to drop the 

 particular example we have chosen and to generalise and thus elevate the subject. 



Is many places we meet with malleable masses, composed almost entirely of 

 iron, the nature of which is in strong contrast with that of all the neighbouring 

 rocks but is identical among themselves. Everywhere that we meet with them, 

 some tradition preserved amongst the inhabitants tells «s that they have fallen 

 from the sky. A very celebrated one, of which a fragment is in the museum at 

 Paris, was found by Pallas in Siberia. The greatest known is that which is to 

 be seen at the source of the Yellow River; this is 15 metres in height, and the 

 Mongols, who call it the North Rock {le RocMr du Nofd), relate that it fell in 

 the track of a fiery meteor. The most numerous have been found in Chili, in the 

 desert of Atacama, where they form two distinct collections in very confined 

 spaces, lying on the ground hal^-buried as at the moment when they fell, and so 

 abundant that they were formerly carried to the port of Cobija and used to shod 

 the mules. Besides iron, these masses contain nickel ; they are so malleable as 



