In Winter Quarters 



feathers" and quadrupeds, differing in 

 type only, but not in habits, from the 

 myriapods, trilobites, spoon-billed 

 dinosaurs, and cave men of Cre- 

 tacean, Eocenic or other early geo- 

 logic ages. And Mars or some other 

 distant belligerent is still throwing 

 rocks our way. One of these, hurled 

 by some solar Hercules at the state 

 of Iowa many years ago, burned its 

 flaming path overhead one winter 

 night still well remembered. After- 

 wards I once watched the proving of 

 a giant gun at Indian Head on the 

 Potomac, and the roar of the great 

 shells, as they tore their way through 

 the air towards a distant bend in the 

 river like the muffled rumble of a 

 heavy freight train on a long piece of 

 trestle work was not nearly so loud 

 as the disturbance made by this mon- 

 ster meteor in its flight through our 

 aero-sphere. This particular missile 

 fired from some stellar Big Bertha, 

 after frightening one-half the people 

 [178] 



