THE GREAT IOWA METEOR. 589 



falling to the earth, as the great Iowa meteor of February 12, 1875, 

 must have weighed aboiit 5,000 pounds. 



Even what has been gathered thus far permits us to rank this 

 meteor among the best observed and richest in meteorites on record. 

 Such are the meteors of Pultusk, Poland (January 30, 1868) ; Knya- 

 hiuya, Hungary (June 9, 1866); Orgueil, France (May 14, 1864); 

 Guernsey County, Ohio (May 1, 1860) ; Parnallee, India (February 

 28, 1857) ; and L'Aigle, France (April 26, 1803). 



Thinking that so remarkable a meteor and so rich a shower of 

 meteorites deserve the attention of the readers of The Populak Sci- 

 ence Monthly, we oifer a short description of them, and shall close 

 with a few suggestions in regard to the origin of these bodies, and 

 their place in the grand history of cosmos. 



I. The Great Iowa Meteor.' The great Iowa meteor consisted 

 of an elongated, pear-shaped mass of the most dazzling whiteness. The 

 bulk of this mass was about 2,000 feet long and 400 feet in diameter; 

 the narrow white trail was about 4,000 feet long and 40 feet in diame- 

 ter. This body was posteriorly enveloped by a much less brilliant 

 trail, shading from orange inside to greenish outside, and extending 

 about nine miles along the described path of the meteor. Persons in 

 the track of the meteor saw a brilliant circular disk of white light, 

 surrounded by an orange to greenish halo, the dim light of which was 

 constantly traversed by narrow bands of brilliant white, running from 

 the central disk in irregulai-ly-curved lines toward the cii-cumference. 

 As this body, increasing in brilliancy and apparent magnitude, was 

 rapidly approaching, both men and animals were overcome with fear. 



The meteor, when by striking the atmosphere of the earth it be- 

 came visible, was at an altitude of 150 miles vertically above the little 

 village of Pleasantville, about midway between Kirksville and Milan, 

 in Northern Missouri. Descending at an angle of about 45 tow- 

 ard the earth's surface, it moved a little east of north, gradually de- 

 viating more and more toward the east, so as to describe a curve,^ 

 the concavity of which is turned eastward. This track of the meteor 

 passed a couple of miles east of Centreville and Moravia in Appa- 

 noose County, Iowa; almost directly over Eddyville on the Des 

 Moines River; crossed almost diagonally the northeastern (Prairie) 

 township of Keokuk County ; passed one and a half mile east of 

 Marengo in Iowa Cou.nty, and finally exploded over a point three miles 

 southwest of the little station of Norway on the Chicago & Northwest- 

 ern Railway, over the boundary-line of Benton and Iowa Counties, at 

 an altitude of about ten miles. 



^ The facts in regard to the meteor we have collected from the very full and reliable 

 "Account of the Detonating Meteor of February 12, 1875. By C. W. Irish, C. E., Iowa 

 City, Iowa, Daily Press Job-Printing Office, 1873." 



^ The total length of the orbit is 210 miles ; the time during which the meteor de- 

 scribed this orbit was about ten seconds : hence the velocity was about 21 miles a 

 second. 



