ination of metallic and earthy substances which the
meteoric stones present. During the era that science has admitted their
path to the earth as a physical truth, scarcely amounting to half a
century, few years have elapsed without a known instance of descent
occurring in some region of the globe. To Izarn's list, previously
given, upward of seventy cases might be added, which have transpired
during the last forty years. A report relating to one of the most
recent, which fell in a valley near the Cape of Good Hope, with the
affidavits of the witnesses, was communicated to the Royal Society, by
Sir John Herschel, in March, 1840. Previously to the descent of the
aerolites, the usual sound of explosion was heard, and some of the
fragments falling upon grass, caused it instantly to smoke, and were too
hot to admit of being touched. When, however, we consider the wide range
of the ocean, and the vast unoccupied regions of the globe, its
mountains, deserts, and forests, we can hardly fail to admit that the
observed cases of descent must form but a small proportion of the actual
number; and obviously in countries upon which the human race are thickly
planted many may escape notice through descending in the night, and will
lie imbedded in the soil till some accidental circumstance exposes their
existence. Some, too, are no doubt completely fused and dissipated in
the atmosphere, while others move by us horizontally, as brilliant
lights, and pass into the depths of space. The volume of some of these
passing bodies is very great. One which traveled within twenty-five
miles of the surface, and cast down a fragment, was suppose to weigh
upward of half a million of tons. But for its great velocity, the whole
mass would have been precipitated to the earth. Two aerolites fell at
Braunau, in Bohemia, July 14, 1847.

In addition to aerolites, properly so called, or bodies known to have
come to us from outlying space, large metallic masses exist in various
parts of the world, lying in insulated situations, far remote from the
abodes of civilization, whose chemical composition is closely analogous
to that of the substances the descent of which has been witnessed. These
circumstances leave no doubt as to their common origin. Pallas
discovered an immense mass of malleable iron, mixed with nickel, at a
considerable elevation on a mountain of slate in Siberia, a site plainly
irreconcilable with the supposition of art having been there with its