NATURE NOTES 
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atmosphere according to the size and quality of the moving body. Very small 
bodies, as shooting stars are believed to be, would explode, or be dissipated, at 
very high altitudes — forty or fifty, or perhaps hundreds of miles (if the atmosphere 
extends so far) ; larger stones in a denser medium nearer the earth’s surface, and 
some perhaps not at all. It may be remarked in this connection that meteorites 
(or fragments of them) are stated to give out gases under the airpump. 
My own view is that, taken altogether, the evidence at present in our posses- 
sion points to the oiigin of these bodies being celestial rather than terrestrial. 
The subject’, however, is not one on which to dogmatise, and I think discussion 
should be welcomed by all earnest seekers after truth. 
Having already occupied so much space I will not attempt to deal with Mr. 
Ilastie’s very ingenious hypothesis respecting comets’ tails, which, by the way, is 
curiously reminiscent of Seneca’s dictum on the same subject, quoted by 
Guillemin. “ Comte radios solis effugiant.” This, with a slight alteration, might 
be made to read : “ The hairs [comets’ tails] fly [in] rays of the sun.” I cannot 
conclude, however, without confirming from my own experience Mr. Ilastie’s 
statement that the lustre of Arcturus was not diminished by Donati’s comet pass- 
ing in front of it. I had the good fortune to view both objects through a refractor 
of about six inches aperture, the star at that time being very near the head of the 
comet ; and I shall never forget the magnificent spectacle presented by a star of 
the first magnitude shining in its full splendour through the comet — itself the most 
brilliant object of its kind that has appeared in the past century. 
Haverstock Hill , Francis H. Baker. 
January 9, 1903. 
Eoliths. — I should be glad of any assistance which any of your readers can 
give me as to the evidence bearing on the age of the deposits containing the 
so-called “ Eolithic ” flint-implements. I know that French anthropologists 
assert the existence of such implements in Pliocene, or even Miocene, beds. Are 
these flints closely similar to those from our plateau-gravels, and is the age of the 
beds precisely determined from mollusca present in them ? I know of no English 
record having any degree of precision from any bed lower than the Cromer 
Forest-bed, from which Mr. Lewis Abbott obtained some alleged implements. 
Have these been figured ? There is an interesting paper on the subject in the 
recently issued number of the Essex Naturalist , but in speaking of the origin of 
the plateau-gravels, the writer does not allude to the important remarks made by 
Prof. T- W. Gregory, in his “Great Rift Valley,” on the cutting back of the 
North Downs and the beheading of their river-valleys. Some years ago I read 
a suggestion made, I think, by Mr. Moule, primarily with reference to Dorset- 
shire, that if India were submerged the rude handicrafts of the hill men would 
survive and might be supposed to be far earlier in date than the really contem- 
porary civilisation of the plains. A similar suggestion might be made with 
reference to the plateau eoliths and the river-valley palaeoliths. What I want to 
obtain, therefore, is some clear evidence as to the greater antiquity, not of the 
implements, but of the plateau-gravels, and also some clue to their relations to 
a former physical geography and to the way in which these implements got into 
•he "ravels F G. S. 
SELBORNE SOCIETY NOTICES. 
Council Meeting. — The usual monthly meeting of the Council will be 
held at 20, Hanover Square, W., on Wednesday, February 11, at 5.30 p.m. 
Mr. Wilfrid S. Durrant has been elected a member of the Council. 
Field Club Committee. — After the Council Meeting on February 11, at 
6.15, there will be a meeting of the Field Club Committee, and the Report for 
last season will be read. Any member of the Selborne Society interested in the 
Field Club Rambles is particularly requested to attend. 
