Shooting Stars 



255 



from shooting stars. Ooze from great depths in the 

 sea far from any land is believed to be composed partly 

 of dust from the same source, which has settled through 

 the water and represents the accumulation of many 

 thousands of centuries. 



Meteors. A few shooting stars are much brighter 

 than others. These are called meteors. They are likely 

 to give off glowing particles forming a train, and the 

 train sometimes remains visible for half an hour after 

 the meteor falls. These brilliant meteors, as they pass 

 through the air, often produce sounds, which have been 

 likened to the detonations of explosives, the roaring of 

 a fire in a chimney, the noise of a trolley car, the flapping 

 of the wings of wild geese, and various other sounds. 



Rarely it happens that meteors strike the solid earth 

 and are picked up. They are then called meteorites. 

 The great national museums at London, Vienna, Paris, 



Oliver C. Farrington 



FIG. 153. Iron meteorite found on Davis Mountains, Texas, in 1903. 

 Its weight is 1520 pounds. 



