444 T. T. QUIRKE 



the explosion occurred over eastern Hettinger county is shown 

 by other witnesses to be correct. The green Hght noted by Mr. 

 St. Marie may have been caused by the presence of copper in the 

 meteorite. Mr. Loran's estimate of the area over which the 

 meteorite was seen and heard is low, because it must have been 

 seen at a distance of one hundred miles in every direction, and the 

 sound was heard at least fifty miles from the place of fall. 



One who has read the descriptions of other meteorite falls 

 may recognize a notable expansion with the times in the language 

 of the witnesses. Doubtless the phenomena have been generally 

 similar. There have been a streak of light, the noise of disruption 

 or merely of the swift passage of masses through the air, and in 

 some instances the whistling of smaller pieces. In early descrip- 

 tions the witnesses compared the noises almost exclusively to 

 thunder and the rolling of wagons ; later came comparisons to the 

 roar of artillery fire or the rumble of cannons, then to noises like 

 a railway train, and to the sound of a train of cars on a bridge. 

 The Modoc fall in 1905 perhaps is the first to have been compared 

 to the noise of machine-gun fire, but in the descriptions of the 

 Richardton fall the noises of small pieces are compared to that 

 caused by the flight of shells and bullets; whereas, to describe 

 the general noise of the fall, the witnesses introduced in comparison 

 the motorcycle and even airships. 



The Richardton meteorite is the third to be reported from 

 North Dakota, the others being two iron meteorites: (i) at James- 

 town, Stutsman County, weighing originally 4,015 gm., found in 

 1885, date of fall unknown; and (2) at Niagara, Grand Forks 

 County, weighing 115 gm., found in 1879, date of fall also 

 unknown. Richardton is the only fall which has been reported 

 as seen to fall in North Dakota, and it is by far the largest found 

 in the state. Of the three meteorites, the only one preserved in 

 collections of the state is Richardton. Two representative boloids, 

 weighing 2 lbs., and 12 oz., respectively, are at the state univer- 

 sity. Both the Jamestown and the Niagara meteorites are widely 

 distributed throughout the collections of the world. In this con- 

 nection it may be urged that finders of meteorites should try to 

 have a representative of every fall placed on exhibition some- 



