earth and moon and other planets, as well as their parent suns, in the course of every moment. Why this should be, or their use in the universe it is not for us to attempt to say: * they are there; and are a constant evidence that infinite space is not empty space, but infinite extension of matter. + The size of some of the larger meteors or boulders is considerable. The following is an interesting account of the descent of one in Canada, into Lake Ontario, in September, 1867 DESCENT OF A METEOR ON A LAKE. "Captain Turner, of the schooner Algerine, who arrived in Hamilton on Friday morning, reports having witnessed, at about eleven o'clock on Tuesday night, a splendid phenomenon. in the descent of an immense meteor into Lake Ontario, which struck the water not more than 300 yards from his vessel. The captain was standing on the main hatch. The vessel was on the starboard tack, and sailing along finely, with a light south-west breeze, for Port Dalhousie, and about twelve miles off the Niagara Light-house, bearing SS.W. Presently his attention was attracted by a sudden illumination from the north-west, which almost instantly increased to a dazzling * Mr. Proctor suggests as a probable use for them, the gradual increase or growth of planetary worlds, by their constant accession and falling upon them. I do not think however this can be borne out by experience of our own globe, which shows neither increasing size, nor any appearance of such a vast quantity as would be required to swell her dimensions in the course of ages. The quantity of meteoric matter on our surface is very trifling. The meteors here referred to are sometimes termed aerolites, or air stones, sometimes boulders, in distinction from those lighter bodies that form the star-showers, to which the term meteorite has been given. Though doubtless having a common origin, and often mixed up with the large and heavy meteors, these latter as a mass generally seems to be composed chiefly of smaller and lighter particles, which (as iron filings fly to the magnet) seem to follow in the train of the great magnetic agents and powers of the universe, the comets, with which recent observation has associated them. brilliancy. On turning he beheld a large body of fire in the heavens, which seemed to be approaching at a descent of about thirty degrees, and growing rapidly larger as it came nearer, the observation of time being so brief as hardly to admit of computation in seconds. The momentary impression of Captain Turner was that certain destruction awaited his vessel, as the terrific missile seemed to be directed to strike the vessel broadside. The time for reflection, however, was brief; and the light emitted was so blinding in its effects, that the man at the wheel and another of the crew on deck fell prostrate, and remained for some time completely stupified with terror. "The Captain himself, as he states, remained transfixed, and saw the fiery body enter the water some 300 yards ahead of his vessel, about two points to windward. A loud explosion. attended the contact with the water, which was sharp and deafening, equal to a thunderbolt close at hand; and a large volume of steam and spray ascended into the air, which was noticed for some moments afterwards. The Captain estimates that the meteor was a body of some twenty feet in diameter. A long trail of flame of the most intense brilliancy was noticed as it struck the water. Captain Turner arrived at Port Dalhousie on Wednesday morning. He states that his nervous system did not recover from the shock experienced for many hours afterwards."-Quebec Gazette. THE MOON. "Soon as the evening shades prevail, ADDISON. THE physical history of the moon, although our nearest neighbour in the heavens, and the object of our close and constant scrutiny, still remains a profound mystery to man; not as regards its design and use to us, which are sufficiently obvious, but its origin and past history. When was our satellite born, and how? and to what cause are we to attribute her present rugged and forlorn condition? Are we to regard her as a deserted world (once inhabited), or as the rough cradle for a future world? We should certainly like to have been present, when, according to the poet, she related her own history to the earth, as given at the head of this chapter. Notwithstanding the acknowledged beauty and popularity of the poem from which this verse is taken, and the well-known celebrity of its author, I have always thought, when reading it (making all due allowance for poetic license), that the earth needed not to be told the Moon's story, as she must have known it before the Moon (as surely as the mother knows and could tell the story of her child's birth before the child); that, if it was as Addison describes, the earth must have been sadly tired at the recital of the same story every night, and would say with Hyppolita (if she could speak),— "I am a weary of this moon: would he would change.”— Midsummer Night's Dream. Indeed, whenever or however it happened, it might have been told in a very few words, as the writer hopes to attempt to do on this occasion, however imperfectly, having elsewhere described more fully the other particulars relating to the present condition and scenery of our beautiful satellite. * But to us (the inhabitants of the earth) the moon is still an enigma, a sealed book, -as we did not enjoy the privilege of hearing her story. And notwithstanding the speculations and conjectures * Vide “The_Lunar world, her Scenery, Motions," etc., by the Rev. J. Crampton. A. and C. Blackie, Edinburgh. Fourth Edition. of astronomers, we have not yet arrived (to demonstration) at the truth of her past history, or the probabilities of her future. Our mother earth has kept the secret so well that we know little or nothing about her, and dare not even draw an analogy from our own condition to her's. Consequently the lunar history remains now as a question for speculation, to any extent, from the soberest to the wildest theory. The Moon, herself, is indeed (it must be allowed) the most provoking object in the heavens. She is a mixture of opposites, being at once the most lovely, and the most desolate and dreadful; the softest and the mildest, and yet the hardest and the roughest. The most soothing and attractive to the Poet, as she smiles from behind a cloud; and yet the most terrible and awful to the Astronomer, as he looks at her with a shudder, and, armed with a telescope, ascends her grand mountains and wanders over her dreary plains and solitudes, or looks down into her fathomless gulfs and abysses. She is the easiest to be seen (being the nearest) of all planetary bodies, and yet not near enough to satisfy us fully as to her condition. We know much less about her than we do of Mars, but with our eye at the most powerful telescope she still leaves us a bridge of mystery to be crossed, a gulf of ignorance to be filled up. We cannot get to the bottom of her real state. She is sufficiently like the earth, too (in her general contour), to induce us to make comparisons and draw unfounded similitudes and conclusions, and sufficiently unlike the earth to make us draw equally unfounded contrasts. Chains of mountains extend over her surface, like our own; huge sandy-looking plains (once called seas) stretch across it; seeming rills or rivers (more probably, in reality, fearful gulfs and fissures of unknown depth) wind their way through it; Lofty volcanoes of Alpine height, the shape and appearance of our own, rise from her surface by the hundred; and craters, or ring-shaped hollows, or pits of various and unknown depths and infinite variety of size, from half-a-mile to wall-surrounded plains of fifty or seventy miles across. These are sown broad-cast over her rough and shining bosom, exhibiting a scene of deso lation which has no parallel on earth. So numerous are these crateriform objects, indeed, that in some places, as Nasmyth says, in the instance of the smaller ones, the surface is literally frothed with them, and conveys the idea that our satellite once upon a time had "come to a boil," or effervescence. The ebullition theory suggested by Hooke being the only one that would seem to satisfy the fearful condition of that strangest and wildest of places. No sign of water, or atmosphere either, is to be |