36 



THE MUSEUM. 



-sufficient to allow its core, or iincon- 

 sumed central portion, to reach the 

 surface, where, unless it falls in the 

 water or on solid rock, it generally 

 manages to bury itself deeply in the 

 soil. On the whole extent of the 

 earth's surface, both land and sea, it 

 is likely that many such fall every day. 



It should be understood, of course, 

 that as many chance meteorites would 

 be likely to fall during the hours of 

 sunshine as during the night-time; in- 

 deed we have seen it asserted that 

 more fall then than in the night, but 

 this is probably an error. Likewise 

 the estimate quoted of the number 

 (7,000,000) encountered by the earth 

 every day is probably far in ex'cess of 

 the truth. Proctor in his "Meteor 

 Dust" puts the number at the average 

 of about a million per day. 



For many years had Ardvane been 

 on the watch for just such a specimen. 

 Hundreds of iron-stained boulders had 

 he e.xamined. Many an angular peb- 

 ble of about the proper color had he 

 picked up in the hopes that at last he 

 had found the longed-for meteorite. 

 Once before, indeed, did Ardvane re- 

 joice in the belief that he had gained 

 the coveted "star;" for from a sand- 

 bank on the Cambrian slopes of the 

 southern Adirondacksa companion had 

 picked up a small angular mass, of a 

 rich red -brown color, whose weight 

 indicated some n'letallic substance. 

 In appearance it was also entirely dif- 

 ferent from the ordinary water-worn 

 pebbles and boulders common to that 

 barren waste. But, alas! on close ex- 

 amination it was apparently but a 

 fragment of fossiliferous iron-ore far- 

 strayed from its parent bed, for was 

 not that cyclindrical portion, showing 

 so prominently, an included encrinal 

 column. So was the desire of Ard- 

 vane again balked, for he could not 

 accept the imaginative discoveries pro- 

 claimed by Dr. I-Jahn, who supposed 

 he had discovered visible traces of 

 sponges, corals, and crinoids in sec- 

 tions cut from meteorites of the noted 

 fall at Knyahinya in Hungary, which 



happened in June, 1866. If the prem- 

 ises of Dr. Hahn are true, then our 

 meteoric acquisitions represent the 

 ruin of a world, — a world with life 

 forms similar to our own, perhaps; a 

 world rent to innumerable fragments 

 by some terrible explosion or cometary 

 collision. 



But here at last was evidently a true 

 celestial visitor. The tremendous 

 weight for its size, its color and angu- 

 lar shape, — all seemed to point to the 

 one conclusion that here was amass of 

 meteoric iron. The impatience of 

 Ardvane would allow him to wait no 

 longer. Seizing a small boulder of 

 quartzite, he hurled it at a projecting 

 corner of the mystery, which, break- 

 ing, made mockery ■ of his hopes. 

 Vain delusion, cruel disappointment! 

 Nothing but a dense mass of feldspath- 

 ic rock permeated and stained with 

 iron, and to the presence of this m- 

 cluded iron was due the peculiar shape 

 to which the mass had weathered. 



Have no. meteors ever fallen in this 

 country of the ancient Mohawks.' No 

 finds of any such have as yet been re- 

 ported and Ardvane had hopes to an- 

 nounce the first discovery. Have pa- 

 tience Ardvane and you may yet snub 

 up against a shooting-star. 



Glenville, N. Y. , Jan. i, 1897. 



Have just been perusing Will Ed- 

 win Snyder's interestmg article on the 

 Land and Fresh Water Shells of 

 Dodge Co., Wis. on page 12, No. i, 

 vol. 3 of the Museum. He states that 

 he has a specimen of Planorbis triv- 

 olvis measuring i ^ inches in diameter. 

 On page 57 of Henry A. Ward's 

 catalogue of mollusca he states that 

 Prof Karl Sempor has ascertained by 

 experiment that the size of Liimwa 

 stagnalis depends upon the size of the 

 body of water they are raised in. 

 Would like to ask Mr. Snyder or any 

 of the many readers of the Museum 

 what their experience is in that way 

 and if it may not be the case with his 

 specimen of Planorbis trivolvis. 

 R. D. Goss, 

 New Sharon, Iowa. 



