Shooting Stars 



257 



Oliver C. Farrington 



FIG .154. Meteoric stone which fell through 

 the roof of a barn at Kilbourne, Wisconsin, 

 January 16, 1911. Its weight is 2 pounds. 



by friction with the at- 

 mosphere. They move 

 i o to 45 miles a second ; 

 that is, 20 times as 

 swiftly as a rifle bullet 

 or 1000 times as fast 

 as an express train. If 

 not checked by the air, 

 they would strike things 

 on the surface of the 

 earth with great force. 

 The few which pass 



through the atmosphere without being reduced to 

 dust are moving much less swiftly when they strike. 

 Some meteoric stones which fell in Sweden struck ice 

 only a few inches thick and rebounded without breaking 

 it. But one which fell in France on a beautiful summer 

 day in 1872 struck with such force as to make a hole in 

 the earth over 5 feet deep. It weighed 126 pounds. 

 If found shortly after falling, the meteorite and the 

 earth into which it has penetrated are likely to be cold ; 

 for the meteor, before encountering the earth's atmos- 

 phere, was colder than anything on earth, and only the 

 superficial portion is heated by its brief flight through 

 the air. 



Star showers. On the night of November 12, 1833, 

 the slaves on Southern plantations thought the world 

 was coming to an end. Stars fell half as fast as snow- 

 flakes in an ordinary snowstorm. Humboldt, the fa- 

 mous traveler, describes a bright shower of meteors that 

 he witnessed in South America in 1799. Professor 



