July 5, 1907] 



SCIENCE 



25 



sandstone mostly changed to quartzite which 

 have become included during the penetration 

 of the sedimentaries by the molten magma. 

 In the minds of the uninitiated this crater 

 cone must have been produced by quite dif- 

 ferent agencies than -were at work on Coon 

 Mountain, whereas probably the difierence lies 

 in the degree and not the kind of action. It 

 would seem quite probable that, on the border 

 of a region of such extreme volcanic activity 

 as has given rise to the most lofty mountains, 

 in Arizona, there might have been an ex- 

 plosion lacking the energy necessary to bring 

 the igneous mass or even fragments of it to 

 the surface. Further, the recession of the 

 magma, accompanied by whatever portions of 

 the strata had become metamorphosed by con- 

 tact, would account for the precipitous walls 

 of the crater as well as the absence of fused 

 material. The explosion may have been of 

 rather an incipient nature, throwing compara- 

 tively little of the material outside of the 

 crater, although, considering the nature of the 

 material, soft sandstone, whatever blocks had 

 been thrown out could easily have become 

 disintegrated and simply added to the mesa 

 soil already made up of the same material. 

 On the southern slope of the crater there are 

 found quite a number of sandstone blocks. 

 Whether these were actually thrown out of the 

 crater or simply broke ofi from the crumpled 

 rim and rolled down the slope can not be 

 determined. 



It would seem, then, that the phenomenon 

 exhibited here can be satisfactorily explained 

 as having been produced by an explosion fol- 

 lowed by an entire lack of volcanic activity, 

 as first explained by G. K. Gilbert, of the 

 United States Geological Survey. The mete- 

 orites found here probably had nothing to do 

 with the formation of the depression. The 

 earth either encountered a meteoric swarm or, 

 what is more likely, a large meteor fell to 

 pieces on striking the earth's atmosphere. 

 The latter hypothesis is considered more prob- 

 able, for the reason that one would expect a 

 swarm to have had the fragments spread out 

 to a greater extent than is evidenced by the 

 rather confined area in which they are found. 



It is to be concluded, then, that these two 

 striking phenomena are simply coincidences 

 and should not be interpreted as cause and 

 effect. 



The endeavor to explain the origin of the 

 crater by some other than volcanic agencies 

 has led some writers to suggest that it may 

 have been produced by solution. According 

 to this hypothesis the depression was caused 

 by the falling in of the top layers of strata 

 forming the roof of a nearly circular cavity 

 which was a portion of an underground water 

 way. This is supposed to have been the cause 

 of the existence of the peculiar circular de- 

 pression located near Camp Verde known as 

 Montezuma's Well. Water still exists here 

 and the fact that it never becomes stagnant 

 or brackish is well known. This hypothesis 

 can not be applied to Coon Mountain, how- 

 ever, for the reason that it leaves unexplained 

 the most noticeable feature of the phenome- 

 non, namely, the upturned strata which forms 

 the rim. This could have been produced 

 only by means of forces working from below. 



F. N. Guild 

 Univeesity of Arizona, 

 January 22, 1907 



CURRENT NOTES ON METEOROLOGY 

 AND CLIMATOLOGY 



MONTHLY WEATHER REVIEW 



The articles of most general interest in 

 Nos. 1 and 2, Vol. XXXV., 1907, of the 

 Monthly Weather Review are as follows: 



" Is not Honesty the wisest Policy ? " is the 

 title of a brief note by Professor Cleveland 

 Abbe, in which it is pointed out that the oiS- 

 cials and observers of the Weather Bureau are 

 often urged by interested persons not to report 

 tornadoes, or frosts, or droughts, or other 

 meteorological phenomena, because of the in- 

 jury which may be done by such announce- 

 ments to local business enterprises and land 

 booms. Professor Abbe rightly puts strong' 

 emphasis on the fact that it is a wrong "to 

 mutilate or suppress the record of an observa- 

 tion of a phenomenon of nature " as it is 

 " also wrong to make a bad use of the record." 



" The Adirondack Eainfall Summit," by E. 



