Neither of
these materials is so enduring as iron, and the fact that they
are not now found on the plain does not prove their original
absence. Moreover, the plain is strewn in the vicinity of the
crater with bits of limonite, a mineral frequently produced by
the action of air and water on iron sulphides, and this material
is much more abundant than the iron. If it be true that the iron
masses were thus imbedded, like plums in an astral pudding, the
hypothetic buried star might have great size and yet only small
power to attract the 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.
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