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THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



While the meteor crossed the northwestern (Prairie) township of 

 Keokuk County, it was seen to divide into two unequal parts, a small 

 eastern portion continuing its motion northeastward, but soon losing 

 its brilliancy, and a seven to fourteen times greater western portion 

 which remained intensely brilliant until its tinal explosion. It teas 

 the smaller portion of the meteor which produced the meteorite shower 

 in Iowa and Amana Toicnships of Iowa County; hence it is highly 

 probable that several thousand pounds of meteorite, some in pieces of 

 over a hundred pounds, will yet be found east and north of the final 

 explosion of the main portion of the meteor, that is, in Florence Town- 

 ship of Benton County, in Fairfax Township of Linn County, and in 

 Lenox Township of Iowa County. In fact, observers have seen " large 

 glowing coals," as they call them, fall in this region where Linn, Ben- 

 ton, and Iowa Counties meet. 



Willie dividing, the meteor produced two tremendous detonations, 

 and, after the main body had crossed the railroad at Marengo, it pro- 

 duced three terrific detonations, which shook the buildings for miles 

 around, so as to create in the residents the fear of an earthquake. 



Besides these detonations, the meteor was accompanied with a 

 variety of other sounds, heard over a circular area of 150 miles in 

 diameter. To those farthest away from the orbit it sounded as if their 

 chimney was on fire, and an astonishingly large number of persons 

 missed the sight of the meteor because they hurried to their stoves 

 and flues to check the apparent fire. Those nearer the track heard 

 a prolonged rumbling and rolling sound, which they compare to that 

 produced by the running of a train over a high and long trestle-bridge. 

 Others, still nearer the region of final explosion, hurried up-stairs, 

 thinking that the plastering had fallen on the heads of their childi-en 

 sleeping in the upper story. Many in this same region heard the 

 clank and clatter of heavy, hard bodies striking against each other, or 

 against the hard ground. 



II. The Iowa County Meteorites. The meteorites thus far 

 found occur in an elliptical area stretching from Amana vor der Huhe, 

 in Amana Township, to Boltonville, in low^a Township, a distance of 

 eight miles. The minor axis of this ellipse measures about three 

 miles. The entire meteorite-field of Iowa County thus far covers, 

 therefore, an area of eighteen square miles. In the northwest the 

 largest pieces are found ; toward the southeast, the meteorites become 

 gradually smaller. This agrees with their derivation from the minor 

 portion of the meteor. As the entire drift was eastward, the resist- 

 ance of the air would, to some extent, produce precisely this distribu- 

 tion of the meteorites according to size. 



The pa-incipal village near the meteorite region is Homestead,* a 



' I gratefully acknowledge many personal obligations to residents of this place, espe- 

 cially to Messrs. William Moerschel, Frederick Moerschel, Geisler, Fehr, Dickel, Noe, and 

 others. 



