THUNDERBOLTS.

Otago Witness, Issue 2401, 8 March 1900, Page 65

THUNDERBOLTS.

By a Bankeh

The pedestrian, proceeding along the shore skirting the beautiful chalk cliSs which are such a distinctive feature of old England, will fisqueirily find a number off round cij'stallised metallic balls, mostly about the size of very small cannon balls, but frequent!;, also both smaller and larger. When newly fallen from the chS the crystals are sharp and perfect, shining with a bright mixture of iridescent metallic colours, violet, copper colour, indigo, and very dark blue, with yerhips a shade of ambsr and green. If, however, tha balls have been long exposed to the action of the waves upon the shingle, the crystalline surface is worn away and smooth.lv polished like an ordinary pebble, so that to those not specially searching ■for these stivnge concretions, they would remain unnoticed. If fractured with a stone, the interior is found to consist of one large radiated crystal, of the colour and appearance of pure gold, the metallic rays all converging upon one spot in - the centre o'i the sphere. So close is the similarity to the precious metal that unin.liatsd finders imagine that Fortune has sniiled upon them, and that the 3" have discovered a mass of solid gold.

These "ihtuideibolfcs," as they are popularly called, are, however, only accvetioas of iron pyrites (formed of iron sncl sulphur), which, if powdered pad mixed with water, will form the ordinary blue vitriol.

Now, how came these round balls of metal to become imbedded thus deev> clown m the chalk? It is very certain that they must have become lodged in the iar-oft age.'., when the chalk vas in pioeess of foiruation; in that fifth '"day," or eon, of creation, whan for hundreds of thousands, cr evtn, perhaps, for millions, of jears, the untold myriads of micio.scopic molluscs, urchins, and foraminifera which swarmed m exuberant profusion on the skill, placid waters of that stiangely «"lin and undisturbed era continued uninterruptedly, generation after generation, to live and die, their colourless calcareous shells falling to the bottom and gradually foiming the white sediment, more than 1000 ft thick, winch now forms ihe chalk cliffs we so love. And yet so minute were these living organisations thpt (accoiding to Ehrenberg) a cubic inch is composed of -iI.OOO million shells of many and \aned forms; some or vihich are like ammonites, with a series of spiked bands intervening between each, cement, some resembling the graceful paper nautilus, some like barbed darts or 3pears, with many shaped like the familiar .shells of the seashore.

It. i? difficult to imagine any possible rneansby which these lajgo metallic ciystnls could have been formed m those ,=ea& — whence came thi iron, and whence the sulphur, for there are absolutely no Uaces whatever of either in the surrounding chalk, how the two elements were brought togetner, and how the combined result became located in the spot where we now, after long eons of time, find jt still resting. As it is fairly certain that no volcanic action was going on during that epoch, it is highly im probable that they could \id\ c been shot out of a volcano ; moreover sconw und other volcanic evidences arc altogether abseil. The writer would then venture to hazard the suggestion that these (perhaps appropriately) so•■.alled thunderbolts are extra-terrestrial ; tbal

i/i ey are meteorites which, owing to then" larger size, w?re no!, completely burnt up in their passage tiirotij.li our atnio=pheie. and, failing to the earth, became imbedded in the scit ddo'.uecus ooze at Ih.j Lcttom m that an- ' cieut can which now fornio our chalk eliiiX I

Tiuly theio aie innumerable natuiv.' enigmas the solution of which is attoiJy nuyonrt ova roach, outs.ide even our power of con.pivlienpioa. Wk-U m exiting fjiatification it will bo. amongst the iiuitmiorsiilc joys and pics, vines ol" the gioat licrcvttei. to exploic, with anyx!guid". the great laboraloiic- Oi I\f<iluie. to witness the- formation oi a pl'iuet. to view unhurt, horn its voiy Muface, the magnificent r ionc''- 3ot a bun. or tc wvtcn tlic collision in spai* oi two mighty woiicK Bin it is those only v.lio yttain to the iciuircct.oll oi the just who will enjoy these great piivili'j e-. And with what gijndmg icmor«e will those- who .tie "-.hut om fiom it all realise what they have- lost!