182 Field Museum of Natural History — Geology, Vol. III. 



Comparison of the falls of meteorites by months as here given with 

 those of falling stars and fireballs as given by W. H. Pickering* shows 

 a marked difference of distribution. According to Pickering's list 

 the falling stars and fireballs are much more uniformly distributed 

 through the year than are meteorites and the periods of greatest 

 number of meteoric falls are from July to November. In May and 

 June their number is at its minimum. Hence the record seems to 

 show a difference in character between meteors and meteorites and 

 furnishes per se a ground for questioning the gradation that has been 

 supposed to exist between meteors and meteorites. 



Tabulation of the falls by days of the year seems to show little 

 of significance. The largest number of falls for any one day is 5 

 on October 13, and this is a month when the total number of falls is 

 not large. Four days show 4 falls each and 158, or nearly half the 

 total number, no falls at all. The days without falls seem to be scat- 

 tered indiscriminately through the year, without marked grouping 

 or arrangement. The days showing falls aside from those mentioned, 

 have from one to three falls each without any marked grouping that 

 is apparent. Such a record seems also to indicate that to refer a 

 meteorite falling on the day of a star shower to such showers is unsafe 

 practice especially if the observations are not sufficient to assign the 

 two to the same radiant. The meteorite falls are so uniformly dis- 

 tributed throughout the year that the two occurrences might easily 

 be coincident without being otherwise related. The full record of the 

 falls by days is as follows: 



Jan. Feb. Mar. Apr.MayJuneJulyAug.Sept.Oct.Nov.Dec. 

 1 1 . . 1 3 • • 2 



Popular Astronomy, 1909, 17, 277. 



