ABUNDANCE OF METEORITES ON THE PAINTED 
DESERT, AND ITS BEARING UPON THE 
PLANETESIMAL HYPOTHESIS OF THE 
ORIGIN OF THE EARTH.* 
Cuarues R. Keyes. 
Prefatory. 
On the borders of the great Painted Desert, in north- 
eastern Arizona, is a remarkable truncated cone known 
as Coon Butte. This low hill rises searcely 200 feet above 
the level of the vast unbroken plain which stretches away 
illimitably in all directions and which forms part of the 
general surface of the High Plateau. Even from short 
distances it ordinarily would be barely noticeable were it 
not for the fact that it is located on the crest of a slight 
swell in the great plains-surface. This fact, coupled with 
the circumstance that the hill is near a good desert water- 
hole, makes Coon Butte an important feature of the local 
landseape.' 
The recent notoriety into which this unimportant emi- 
nence of Coon Butte has come on account of the abund- 
ance of meteoric material found in its vicinity is out of 
all proportion to its merits. The novelty of these mete- 
oric finds now appears to lie not so much along the tracer- 
ies of cosmic speculation, as it does along the more sub- 
*Presented by title to The Academy of Science of St. Louis, Novem- 
ber 21, 1910. 
*Coon Butte, or Coon Mound, is a very appropriate title in the minds 
of the denizens of the Canyon Diablo desert. The landmark, incon- 
spicuous as it is, is especially distinguished by a term indicating that 
the Coon tanks, or Coon springs, are near by, where ample supplies 
of wholesome water is obtainable. Probably at one time, not so very 
long ago, two large rock monuments stood on the rim of the crater 
nearest the water-holes. This is a happy and quite generally used 
emblem directing the desert traveler to potable water. 
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