14 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL, I48 



Africa, meteorite fell in the morning hours of either the 22d or 23d 

 of November 1907, hence is shovi^n midway between these dates. 

 An inspection of figure 2 shows the following : 



1. The falls are not uniformly dispersed through these 122 days. 

 Actually, on 32 days no meteorite falls were reported. 



2. The longest gap without falls is the 6th to 10th of November, 

 the interval which precedes the reappearance of the Leonid showers. 



3. The greatest number of meteorites to fall on any date is 5, 

 and this number fell on each of three days — August 5, October 13, 

 and November 12 (see table 3B for detailed listing). 



If the witnessed meteorite falls are grouped into 10-day intervals 

 between August 1 and November 30 (table 3A), the maximum 

 number of falls, 23, occurs between August 1 and 9 ; the minimum 

 number is 8, between November 1 and 9. 



GEOGRAPHICAL ANALYSIS OF HEXAHEDRITES 



The next step is to examine the distribution of the hexahedrites 

 listed in table 1 to determine whether their scatter suggests random 

 falls or a shower. The hexahedrites from the different continents 

 have been plotted on maps, and their groupings will be discussed by 

 geographic areas. 



NORTH AMERICA 



The irons from this continent group themselves into two or possibly 

 three areas, with two stragglers located outside the main geographic 

 concentrations. The stragglers, which occur in western United 

 States, are discussed at the end of the section on North America. 



Western North America. — The four hexahedrites from the north- 

 western portion of the United States and from part of nearby 

 Canada are shown in table 4. These irons can be enclosed within 

 an ellipse 875 miles long. Four is an insufficient number of 

 specimens from an ellipse of this size to suggest a shower. Yet if the 

 groupings of hexahedrites in other areas of the world are significant, 

 this may become a promising area for future hexahedrite discoveries. 



Southern United States and northern Mexico. — Table 5 lists the 

 specimens recovered in this part of the continent. Six were found 

 in an area extending northeast from Coahuila, Mexico, across Texas 

 to southern Oklahoma (fig. 3). This area can be enclosed by an 

 ellipse with a long axis of about 500 miles. This distance, more 

 than half the long axis of the group of four western hexahedrites 



