ight from
molten matter, be instantly quenched by water. Also it seems acceptable
that a revolving wheel would, from a distance, look like a globe; that a
revolving wheel, seen relatively close by, looks like a wheel in few
aspects. The mergers of ball-lightning and meteorites are not
resistances to us: our data are of enormous bodies.

So we shall interpret--and what does it matter?

Our attitude throughout this book:

That here are extraordinary data--that they never would be exhumed, and
never would be massed together, unless--

Here are the data:

Our first datum is of something that was once seen to enter an ocean.
It's from the puritanic publication, _Science_, which has yielded us
little material, or which, like most puritans, does not go upon a spree
very often. Whatever the thing could have been, my impression is of
tremendousness, or of bulk many times that of all meteorites in all
museums combined: also of relative slowness, or of long warning of
approach. The story, in _Science_, 5-242, is from an account sent to the
Hydrographic Office, at Washington, from the branch office, at San
Francisco:

That, at midnight, Feb. 24, 1885, Lat. 37 deg. N., and Long. 170 deg. E., or
somewhere between Yokohama and Victoria, the captain of the bark
_Innerwich_ was aroused by his mate, who had seen something unusual in
the sky. This must have taken appreciable time. The captain went on deck
and saw the sky turning fiery red. "All at once, a large mass of fire
appeared over the vessel, completely blinding the spectators." The fiery
mass fell into the sea. Its size may be judged by the volume of water
cast up by it, said to have rushed toward the vessel with a noise that
was "deafening." The bark was struck flat aback, and "a roaring, white
sea passed ahead." "The master, an old, experienced mariner, declared
that the awfulness of the sight was beyond description."

In _Nature_, 37-187, and _L'Astronomie_; 1887-76, we are told that an
object, described as "a large ball of fire," was seen to rise from the
sea, near Cape Race. We are told that it rose to a height of fifty feet,
and then advanced close to the ship, then moving away, remaining visible
about five minutes. The supposition in _Nature_ is that it was "ball
lightning," but Flammarion, _Thunder and Lightning_, p. 68, says that it
was enormous. Details in the American _Meteorological Journal_,
6-443--Nov. 12, 1887--British steamer _Siberian_--that the object had