VICTORIAN METEORITES, WITH NOTES ON OBSIDIANITES. 
tlie fact that obsidianites occurred both on the surface and in certain 
drifts having the appearance of some antiquity, but positive evidence 
of which antiquity is lacking. The importance of settling this is 
very obvious, for there could not have been a selective action operating 
over indefinite periods, and insuring to each country its own 
particular type of tektite, consequently, proof of variation in the 
age of obsidianites would be fatal to the meteoric theory. 
Mr. Summers, in his paper on “ The Origin of Obsidianites from 
a Chemical Stand-point, 5 ’ thinks that, so far as the data goes, their 
chemical composition points to a certain amount of provincial 
distribution. Should such prove to be the case, it would indicate 
that the shower of obsidianites originated from clusters of cosmic 
bodies, the clusters being probably of comparatively small size, and 
differing somewhat from one another in chemical composition. A 
provincial distribution could also have taken place under a terrestrial 
hypothesis, but only if the creative cause of each provincial type 
were local. 
In this case, however, the origin could not have been volcanic, 
for the evidence is absolutely against such a view, and a true 
explanation yet remains to be conceived. Surely, if obsidianites 
be terrestrial volcanic products, as strongly maintained by a few 
geologists, some indication of their place or places of emission 
would remain, considering that they must be of recent geological 
age. The only volcanic vents which have yielded acid glasses, and 
which could be looked to as a possible source, do not appear to have 
produced a single specimen resembling obsidianites. This fact 
alone affords the most weighty reason for not accepting a terrestrial 
volcanic origin for obsidianites, and until undoubted proof is forth- 
coming of such a source, all other evidence in support of the theory 
is of little value. 
A suggestion circulated locally a good many years ago has been 
published recently, and almost simultaneously by k. J. kunn 
and Professor J. W. Gregory!- It is that obsidianites may have 
been formed by the fusion of dust in the earth s atmosphere by 
electric discharges, otherwise that they are aerial fulgurites. No 
evidence has been advanced in support of this suggestion, but a 
careful consideration of the facts soon leads to the conviction that 
the explanation is untenable. 
* “ Australites.” Geological Survey of Victoria, Bulletin No. 27, 1912, p. 7. 
•j- “Making of the Earth,” p. 36. 
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