34S Mallet — Stony Meteorite from Coon Butte, Arizona. 



rebounded to this spot by reason of the force with which it 

 struck." 



Mr. Barringer thinks it highly probable that this aerolite 

 was seen to fall about a year and a half before he found it, and 

 has sent me the following statement of facts in support of 

 this opinion. 



"About the middle of January, 1904 — on the 15th of the 

 month, as nearly as the date can now be fixed — while two of 

 our employees at Coon Butte were watching the camp (we had 

 suspended operations during the winter), they were awakened, 

 so they told us, by a loud hissing noise and looking northward 

 saw that the heavens were brilliantly lighted, and while rush- 

 ing out of their tent saw a meteor fall somewhere west or 

 northwest of the butte between them and the railroad. We 

 paid no special attention to the story, and supposed that 

 although they might have seen a meteor fall, it had come to 

 the earth, if it came to the earth at all, many miles distant. 

 However on the same evening and at the same moment, a few 

 minutes before nine o'clock, the hour being fixed by the train 

 schedule, Dr. A. Rounsville and Dr. G. F. Manning were trav- 

 elling together from Williams, Arizona, to Canyon Diablo 

 station, Dr. JRounsville sitting next to the window on the south 

 side of the car, and just before the train stopped they saw 

 a brilliant light outside of the train, which Dr. Rounsville 

 described just as our men did — i. e. as being lighter than day- 

 light. He could see the mountains twenty miles away, and 

 distinctly every shrub and rock for hundreds of yards from the 

 train. As he exclaimed to Dr. Manning, who occupied the 

 same seat, concerning this light, he caught a glimpse of a fire- 

 ball dropping to the horizon in the direction of Coon Butte. 

 The light and the fireball were both seen by Dr. Manning also. 

 It seems from the coincidence of time almost certain that this 

 was the same meteor as that seen by our employees at Coon 

 Butte, the observers being about twelve miles apart. It was 

 very near a spot at the intersection of the two lines of sight, 

 the direction of which they of course could not determine with 

 exactness, that I found the stony meteorite."* 



The specimen as received by me was pyriform, with a 

 roughly triangular cross-section, bounded by two approxi- 

 mately flat surfaces (one larger than the other) inclined at 

 about 60° or 65° to each other and united by a third, irregu- 

 larly curved convex surface. It was a good deal larger at one 

 end than at the other. The general surface was smooth, but 

 indented at places with the characteristic shallow pittings, like 

 thumb prints on a lump of sculptor's modelling clay, which 



* Further correspondence, sent me by Mr. Barringer, shows that there is 

 some doubt as to the date, but the preponderance of evidence is in favor of 

 its having been the same in respect to both sets of observers. 



