"A meteor!" I exclaimed, struck with a sudden idea.
"If I had my gun ready, I would fire at it, at all events."
"You had better not," said I; "the globe may contain electric fluid, and we might draw it down upon us."
Soon afterwards the meteor passed by us. We threw ourselves down flat on the earth, dreading this unknown visitor. When I ventured to rise, it was some distance away, and yet appeared to be motionless. Rays incessantly quivering sprang from the centre of it; in the middle the light was white, but at the edges it assumed first a yellowish, then a red, and lastly a bluish hue. We were suddenly almost blinded by a flash of intense brilliancy; a formidable explosion, repeated by the echoes, burst upon our ears, and all became silence and obscurity.
While we were returning to our bivouac, Lucien and l'Encuerado pressed us with questions.
"What are meteors?" asked Lucien, eagerly.
"Some scientific men," replied Sumichrast, "look upon them as fragments of planets wandering in space. Getting entangled in our planetary system, they yield to the attraction of our globe, and fall on to its surface in obedience to the law of gravitation."
"But what are they composed of?"
"Generally speaking, of sulphur, chromium, and earth. The phenomenon of 'shooting stars' is connected with that of meteors, and any substance falling on the surface of the earth receives the name of aerolite."
"Do you wish to persuade me that stones rain down from the sky?" cried l'Encuerado.