TEE DISTRIBUTION OF METEORITES. 351 



THE GEOGKAPHICAL DISTEIBUTION OF METEOEITES. 



By Dx. OLIVER C. FARRINGTON, 



FIELD COLUMBIAN MUSEUM. 



SPEAKING broadly, we know as yet of no fundamental reason why 

 meteorite falls should be any more numerous upon one part of 

 the earth's surface than upon another. 



Compared with the vast area of space in which meteorites wander, 

 our earth is but a point, which draws into itself from time to time one 

 of these masses. Moreover, it is a rotating and wabbling point, ever 

 presenting new surfaces to the portions of space in which it is traveling. 

 The marksman who displays his skill by shooting glass balls thrown 

 into the air would have the difficulty of his task enormously increased 

 if he should endeavor to strike successively the same point upon the 

 ball, especially if it had in addition to its forward motion one of 

 rapid rotation about a wabbling axis. It is true that there is some 

 prospect of our being able after much study and comparison of data 

 to locate a few meteorite swarms with sufficient accuracy to warrant 

 a conclusion as to what point upon the earth stones from them will 

 strike, but this possibility seems at present quite remote. At present 

 we can only presume that a gentle rain of meteorites has fallen regu- 

 larly and impartially upon the earth since the morning stars first 

 sang together. 



The latest and best calculations, which are by Professor Berwerth, 

 of Vienna, have shovra that the number of meteorites actually falling 

 upon the earth at the present time each year, not including of course 

 shooting stars or meteors, is about nine hundred. Two or three of 

 these bodies fall, then, somewhere upon the earth every twenty-four 

 hours. But about three fourths of the earth's surface is covered with 

 water, and the missiles impinging upon this area are lost. Upon the 

 remaining one fourth, however, 225 falls should take place, accom- 

 panied by phenomena such as to make the occurrence noteworthy, A 

 large part of the land is, however, unpopulated and our figure of 225 

 may, therefore, be cut in half in order to take account of this factor. 

 Again, falls taking place in the night would, in many cases, not be 

 observed, and as a last concession we may halve our figure on this 

 account. It would finally seem then that about 55 meteorite falls 

 capable of record might be expected to take place each year, and in a 

 century the total should be 5,500. As a matter of fact, the total 

 number of recorded meteorite falls, including some from as far back 

 as the fifteenth century, is only about 350. 



