e magnetic needle. Mr. Howell also proposes a qualification of the
test by volumes, suggesting that some of the rocks beneath the buried
star might have been condensed by the shock so as to occupy less space.

"These considerations are eminently pertinent to the study of the
crater and will find appropriate place in any comprehensive discussion
of its origin; but the fact which is peculiarly worthy of note at the
present time is their ability to unsettle a conclusion that was
beginning to feel itself secure. This illustrates the tentative nature
not only of the hypotheses of science, but of what science calls its
results.

"The method of hypotheses, and that method is the method of science,
founds its explanations of nature wholly on observed facts, and its
results are ever subject to the limitations imposed by imperfect
observation. However grand, however widely accepted, however useful
its conclusions, none is so sure that it cannot be called into question
by a newly discovered fact. In the domain of the world's knowledge
there is no infallibility."

After Prof. Gilbert had finished his experiments, Mr. Volz tried some
of his own along the same line. He found upon trial that the
meteorites in his possession were non-magnetic, or, practically so. If
these, being pieces of the larger meteorite which was buried in the
hole, were non-magnetic, all of it must be non-magnetic, which would
account for the failure of the needle to act or manifest any magnetic
attraction in the greater test.

Mr. Volz also made another interesting discovery in this same
connection. All over the meteorite zone are scattered about small
pieces of iron which he calls "iron shale." It is analogous to the
true meteorite, but is "burnt" or "dead." He regards these bits of
iron as dead sparks from a celestial forge, which fell from the
meteorite as it blazed through the heavens.

In experimenting with the stuff he found that it was not only highly
magnetic, but also possessed polarity in a marked degree; and was
entirely different from the true meteorite. Here was a curiosity,
indeed; a small, insignificant and unattractive stone possessed of
strong magnetic polarity, a property of electricity that is as
mysterious and incomprehensible as is electricity itself.

Another peculiarity of Canon Diablo meteorite is that it contains
diamonds. When the meteorite was first discovered by a Mexican sheep
herder he supposed that he had found a