W. M. Foote — Shower of Meteoric Stones, Arizona. 437 



Art. XXXIX. — Preliminary Note on the Shower of Meteoric 

 Stones near Ilolbrooh, Navajo County, Arizona, July 19th, 

 1912, including a Reference to • the Perseid Swarm of 

 Meteors visible from July 11th to August %%d ; by Warren 

 M. Foote. 



History. 



It was doubtless the literary exaggerations of the 18th 

 century and similar causes which prevented early geologists 

 and astronomers from investigating the reports of falling sky- 

 stones. But in the fatherland of yellow journalism we some- 

 times find a journalistic restraint, under conditions that are 

 worthy of remark, and which prove the labor of the news- 

 gatherer to be of value to science. In the last week of July, 

 the following account appeared in several Arizona papers : 



Friday evening about six-thirty a meteor, or some other body 

 of a like nature, passed over Holbrook going almost due east at 

 a rate of speed that would make a swift-moving express train seem 

 as though it were standing dead still. The noise it created was 

 very loud and lasted for at least a half a minute and sounded 

 somewhat like distant thunder or the booming of a cannon in the 

 distance. It left a large cloud of smoke in its trail and several of 

 our citizens heard it explode a couple of times. A few saw it and 

 nearly everyone heard the noise it made. Reports from Winslow 

 are that several people saw the body pass over the town, and the 

 noise was heard at St. Joseph, Woodruff, Pinedale, and Concho. 

 That either all or part of the body fell near the section house 

 at Aztec, six miles east of here, there seems to be little doubt. 



* * * * 



A few small pieces were brought in here. One piece larger 

 than an orange fell into a tree in a yard at Aztec cutting the 

 limb off slick and clean and falling to the ground, and when 

 picked up was almost red-hot. Other particles of the body fell 

 in the same vicinity and an eye-witness states that for about a 

 mile to the east he could see little puffs of dust arising from the 

 sand, evidently where fragments struck. 



* * * * 



About two dozen people went to Aztec to pick up pieces of the 

 meteor Sunday afternoon and the field is now pretty well cleaned 

 up. The largest found weighed over 14 pounds, while several 

 of about 5 pounds were picked up, and numerous small pieces. 

 They are very brittle, heavy, and appear to have many small 

 particles of iron in them. 



As the writer of the present article lacked the time for mak- 

 ing the two-thousand mile journey from Philadelphia, the 

 additional and confirmatory data were secured by correspond- 



A.M. Jour. Sci.— -Fourth Series, Vol. XXXIV, No. 203.— November, 1912. 

 29 



