The Cheyenne daily leader. [volume] (Cheyenne, Wyo.) 1870-1884, 1879-11-14
EoRI

sons ignorant of the laws of motion. II
is known, on the one hand, that matter
expelled from the earth never could
have formed a ring of meteors around
the earth, while, on the other hand, a
ring of meteors around the earth neye,
could account for the downfall of me.
teors upon it. 1t is as nearly certain as
a matter of this sort can well be, that a
number of the meteorites which fall
from time to time upon the earth have
been expelled from planets or from a
planet having already a solid crust. The
only explanation which seems admis.
sible, so far as such meteorites are con.
cerned, is that they were expelled from
our own earth in some remote stage OF
her existence.
The mere fact that so many hundreds
Of thousands of these earth-born mete.
orites have been in the first place strewn
around the zone along which the earth
pursues her course, and then gathered
up by the earth ESQ far as they have vet
been gathered up), would of itself de.
monstrate the lapse Of many millions of
years since the former process began.
Although the earth must of necessity
pass always either through or very near
the orbit pursued by each meteorite ex-
PEELED from her interior, yet, in most
cases, many circuits Of the earth-that
is, many years-would elapse before the
earth and an earth-born meteorite
would again be simultaneously near the
scene of the original outburst which
gave the meteorite separate existence.
On an average, thousands of years
would elapse before an approach close
enough, apart from perturbations, to
bring the meteorite to rest upon the
earth would occur. The chances would
be enormous against the occurrence of
one of these near approaches at time
when the meteorite's orbit was, at this
point, in actual intersection with the
earth's.
Perturbations would sway the mete-
orite's orbit and also that of the earth
hither and thither across the mean posi-
ton of either, by a range amply sufici-
ent to separate the point of nearest ap-
proach of the two orbits more than a
diameter of the earth from each other,
So that unless a close approach Of the
earth and meteorite occurred at a time
when in the swaying hitber and thither
Of the two orbits the effect of perturb-
atoms at the place of nearest approach
OF the orbits was nearest at a minimum.
the earth and meteorite would pass
clear Of each other, however nearly the
two might synchronize in their passage
OF the respective points where the two
orbits at the moment approached each
other most nearly. The orbits may ap-
proach each other very closely at some
point, or may even intersect at a mo.
ment when the bodies travelling on these
orbits are very far apart. And uice uer-
SO, the two bodies may make a near ap-
proach to each other by coming nearly
simultaneously to the points where the
two orbits approach most nearly, yet at
the moment the orbits may there be
separated more widely than usual. For
the two bodies to meet they must reach
the points of the nearest approach of
the two orbits at the same time.
The meteorites we are considering
present clear signs of having once FORM
ed parts of solid strata, which must
have been formed slowly. Thus is re-
cognized the co-existence of a solid
crust, and an explosive energy compe-
tent to expel matter so forcibly that
thereafter it would be free from the
earth's control, though not from ac-
cidental future encounters with the
earth. Thus again we recognize the
existence of yet longer periods, when
the greater part of the substance of the
forming earth was vaporous, and when,
during the process Of slow contraction,
she was gathering those powers by
which she was afterwards able to expel
millions of meteoric masses from her
interior. What happened to our earth
must have happened or be now in pro-
gress with every orb throughout the in
finities of space. This theory is not con-
trary to the evidence which shows that
those orbs have been in large part form
ed by the aggregation of meteoric mass
es are no more inconsistent than are
the two processes by n of which trees
gather nutriment from the earth, and
80 grow, bear fruit and throw out leav-
es, while by the other they strew upon
the earth leaves, fruit, buds, and at
last their W substance. The earth
born meteorites, which return in thou
sands year by year to the earth from
which they sprang, are but as the
leaves Of a tree compared with the soil
from which the tree derives it nourish-
ment, when we compare the total mass
Of all these meteorites with that of those
portions Of the mighty nebula from
which the mass of the earth itself was
formed. This portion in turn compar,
ed with the whole nebula is but as the
soil nourishing a single tree to that
from which a whole soul derives its
support.
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