September 1, 1922] 



SCIENCE 



251 



meteorite fell, whieh he described as in a 

 ravine four and one half miles southeast of 

 Oxford, Ohio. Hence, also, the size of it was 

 variously estimated as "six inches in diame- 

 ter," "as large as a dinner plate," "as large as 

 a lard can," "as large as a barrel"; and the 

 path of it on the face of the firmament was 

 described as "descending toward the earth" 

 (really it was passing toward the horizon) 

 "with a moderately descending course," "at an 

 angle of 45 degrees," "at an angle of 65 de- 

 grees" — all blissfully unconscious that these 

 estimates mean nothing to any one but the one 

 making it. A doctor described the bright trail 

 left by the meteor as "20 feet long." Two of 

 the obsei-vers at different points, neither of 

 them closer to it than 50 miles, despite the 

 fact that sound waves travel with a very low 

 velocity as compared to those of light, were 

 certain that they heard a "swishing" or "hiss- 

 ing" noise accompanying the meteor as it sped 

 across the sky. A number attempted to give 

 the direction of the path of the meteor with 

 reference to the points of the compass, not 

 realizing that this was impossible in all cases 

 where it did not pass through the zenith of 

 the observer, because only one of the com- 

 ponents of its course — that athwart the line 

 of his vision — could be determined by him. 



Let us hope that when our present boy 

 scouts come to maturity, having been trained 

 in a proper knowledge of their relation to their 

 physical environment, which has been so sadly 

 neglected in our schools — is it because the 

 teaching of the boy has been so exclusively 

 delegated to women? — those who then follow 

 "meteor chasing" as a scientific recreation may 

 find their efforts to elicit information concern- 

 ing things celestial, when they come into rela- 

 tion to things terrestrial, crowned with better 

 success than were those of their predecessors. 



Meanwhile the meteorite of May 30, 1922, 

 lies hidden somewhere in the most mountainous 

 portion of West Virginia, probably, according 

 to the advices received from Dr. I. C. White, 

 state geologist of that state, within the area 

 covered by the counties of Fayette, Greenbrier, 

 Raleigh and Summers. What an exasperating 

 way meteorites seem to have of so frequently 



selecting the wildest and most rugged portions 

 of our earth in which to bury themselves!^ 



Arthur M. Miller 

 The UNivEEsrrT op Kentucky 



THE FOURTH RECORD OF THE OCCUR- 

 RENCE IN THE ATLANTIC OCEAN 

 OF THE WHALE SHARK, 

 RHINEODON TYPUS 



On the early morning of May 19, 1922, 

 while the Munson liner, American Legion, 

 Charles H. Zearfoss master, was crossing over 

 the banks which lie northeast of the Abrolhos 

 Light, off the coast of Brazil, in Lat. 17° 57' S. 

 and Long. 38° 41' W., a large shark was struck 

 by the stem of the vessel and held doubled 

 around the bow for some hours. It was photo- 

 graphed and an attempt was made to get it 

 aboard, but the weight was too great. 



It was struck just behind the gills and, with 

 about eight feet of the head end on one side 

 of the bow and some twenty-two feet of the 

 body and tail on the other, it was so perfectly 

 balanced that the vessel had to be stopped and 

 backed before it could be got rid of. 



Photographs sent me by Mr. C. F. Krauss, 

 a passenger on the steamer, and by Captain 

 Zearfoss, show only a part of the body, but 

 they show plainly the spots arranged in ver- 

 tical rows and separated by vertical bars, the 

 distinctive markings of the whale shark. These 

 photographs leave not the faintest shadow of 

 dou'bt that the shark was Bhineodon. 



This then definitely constitutes a fourth 

 record for the Atlantic Ocean of the occur- 

 rence of the largest of all the sharks, and of 

 the rarest of all the large sharks. The other 



1 Since writing the above, letters from two per- 

 sons in West Virginia — ^W. T. HiU, Eskdale, 

 Kanawha County, and M. W. Venable, who saw 

 the meteor from near the mouth of Glade Creek, 

 Ealeigh County — indicate that the meteorite is 

 probably to be looked for in Greenbrier County, 

 that state. The former heard a "rumbling 

 sound " in a due east direction about one minute 

 after the meteor disappeared, and the latter a 

 ' ' tremendous roar similar to a salvo of artillery ' ' 

 simultaneous with the bursting of the meteorite 

 ivith a ' ' brilliance almost blLading " in a direc- 

 tion a little east of north. 



