38 To the River Plate and Back 



alarmed by the loud report, rushed out, and, attracted 

 by the peculiar actions of the dog, went to the spot, 

 and after a while succeeded in digging out the stone, 

 which Professor Shepard subsequently bought. Upon 

 concluding the recital of this story, the Professor was 

 accustomed to remove his spectacles, and, wiping 

 them with his handkerchief, remark: 'That was a 

 wise dog; he recognized the Dog Star as soon as he saw 

 it. ' The feat performed by the dog in this case was, 

 however, surpassed by my friend, Professor O. C. 

 Farrington of the Field Museum in Chicago. A few 

 years ago hearing of a fall, which had taken place in one 

 of the Western States, he made a series of computations 

 which led him to infer that the aerolite must be lying 

 approximately in a certain position upon the earth's 

 surface, and then taking a train from Chicago, he went 

 out upon the prairies of Kansas, and after tramping 

 around for a time, found the very spot and dug it out 

 of the ground. An equally curious case is that of the 

 Saline Township meteorite, as it is called. Mr. S. A. 

 Sutton of Hoxie, Kansas, was frightened one night by a 

 blinding light and a loud noise, and thought the lamp 

 was exploding in the front hall of his house. He 

 sprang to his feet, and then saw through the window a 

 great trail of dazzling light in the sky and realized that 

 it was a meteorite which had passed overhead. Being 

 a surveyor and mathematician he made computations, 

 and at last by their help succeeded in locating the stone, 

 which is now in the Field Museum. It weighs more 

 than sixty-eight pounds. 



It is fortunate for the inhabitants of the earth that 

 there is so little flotsam and jetsam in space and that 

 meteoric bodies are as rare as they are. It would not 

 be a pleasant thing to be perpetually colliding with the 



