CHAPTER V.

GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION OF METEORIC STONES--DO AEROLITIC FALLS OCCUR MORE FREQUENTLY BY DAY THAN BY NIGHT?--DO METEORITES, BOLIDES, AND THE MATTER OF ORDINARY SHOOTING-STARS, COEXIST IN THE SAME RINGS?

Professor Charles Upham Shepard, of Amherst College, who has devoted special attention to the study of meteoric stones, has designated two districts of country, one in each continent, but both in the northern hemisphere, in which more than nine-tenths of all known aerolites have fallen. He remarks: "The fall of aerolites is confined principally to two zones; the one belonging to America is between 33° and 44° north latitude, and is about 25° in length. Its direction is more or less from northeast to southwest, following the general line of the Atlantic coast. Of all known occurrences of this phenomenon during the last fifty years, 92·8 per cent. have taken place within these limits, and mostly in the neighborhood of the sea. The zone of the Eastern continent--with the exception that it extends ten degrees more to the north--lies between the same degrees of latitude, and follows a similar northeast direction, but is more than twice the length of the American zone. Of all the observed falls of aerolites, 90·9 per cent. have taken place within this area, and were also concentrated in that half of the zone which extends along the Atlantic."

The facts as stated by Professor Shepard are, of course, unquestionable. It seems, however, extremely improbable that the districts specified should receive a much larger proportion of aerolites than others of equal extent. How, then, are the facts to be accounted for? We answer, the number of aerolites _seen_ to fall in a country depends upon the number of its inhabitants. The ocean, deserts, and uninhabited portions of the earth's surface afford no instances of such phenomena, simply for the want of observers. In sparsely settled countries the fall of aerolites would not unfrequently escape observation; and as such bodies generally penetrate the earth to some depth, the chances of discovery, when the fall is not observed, must be exceedingly rare. Now the part of the American continent designated by Professor Shepard, it will be noticed, is the oldest and most thickly settled part of the United States; while that of the Eastern continent stretches in like manner across the most densely populated countries of Europe. This fact alone, in all probability, affords a sufficient explanation of Prof. Shepard's statement.[17]

_Do aerolites fall more frequently by day than by night?_--Mr. Alexander S. Herschel, of Collingwood, England, has with much care and industry collected and collated the known facts in regard to bolides and aerolites. One result of his investigations is that a much greater number of meteoric stones are observed to fall by day than by night. From this he infers that, for the most part, the orbits in which they move are _interior_ to that of the earth. The fact, however, is obviously susceptible of a very different explanation--an explanation quite similar to that of the frequent falls in particular districts. _At night the number of observers is incomparably less; and hence many aerolites escape detection._ There would seem to be no cause, reason, or antecedent probability of these falls being more frequent at one hour than another in the whole twenty-four.

_The coexistence of meteorites, bolides, and the matter of shooting-stars in the same rings?_--It has been stated on a previous page that several aerolite epochs are coincident with those of shooting-stars. Is the number of such cases sufficient to justify the conclusion that the correspondence of dates is not accidental? We will consider,

I. The Epoch of November 11th-14th.

1. 1548, November 6th. A very large detonating meteor was seen at Mansfield, Thuringia, at two o'clock in the morning. The known rate of movement of the node brings this meteor within the November epoch.

2. 1624, November 7th. A large fire-ball was seen at Tubingen. The motion of the node brings this also within the epoch.

3. 1765, November 11th. A bright meteoric light was observed at Frankfort.

4. 1791, November 11th. A large meteor was seen at Göttingen and Lilienthal.

5. 1803, November 13th. A fire-ball, twenty-three miles high, was seen at London and Edinburgh.

6. 1803, November 13th. A splendid meteor was seen at Dover and Harts.

7. 1808, November 11th. A fire-ball was seen in England.

8. 1818, November 13th. A fire-ball was seen at Gosport.

9. 1819, November 13th. A fire-ball was seen at St. Domingo.

10. 1820, November 12th. A large detonating meteor was seen at Cholimschk, Russia.

11. 1822, November 12th. A fire-ball appeared at Potsdam.

12. 1828, November 12th. A meteor was seen in full sunshine at Sury, France.

13. 1831, November 13th. A fire-ball was seen at Bruneck.

14. 1831, November 13th. A brilliant meteor was seen in the North of Spain.

15. 1833, November 12th. A fire-ball was seen in Germany.

16. 1833, November 13th. A meteor, two-thirds the size of the moon, was seen during the great meteoric shower in the United States.

17. 1834, November 13th. A large fire-ball was seen in North America.

18. 1835, November 13th. Several aerolites fell near Belmont, Department de l'Ain, France.

19. 1836, November 11th. An aerolitic fall occurred at Macao, Brazil.

20. 1837, November 12th. A remarkable fire-ball was seen in England.

21. 1838, November 13th. A large fire-ball was seen at Cherbourg.

22. 1849, November 13th. An extraordinary meteor appeared in Italy. "Seen in the southern sky. Varied in color; a bright cloud visible one and a half hour after; according to some a detonation heard fifteen minutes after bursting. Seen also like a stream of fire between Tunis and Tripolis, where a shower of stones fell; some of them into the town of Tripolis itself."

23. 1849, November 13th. A large meteor was seen at Mecklenburg and Breslau.

24. 1856, November 12th. A meteoric stone fell at Trenzano, Italy.

25. 1866, November 14th. At Athens, Greece, a large number of bolides was seen by Mr. J. F. Julius Schmidt, during the shower of shooting-stars. One of these fire-balls was of the first class, and left a train which was visible one hour to the naked eye.

II. The Epoch of August 7th-11th.

1. 1642, August 4th. A meteoric stone fell in Suffolk County, England.

2. 1650, August 6th. An aerolite fell in Holland. The observed motion of the node brings both these stone-falls within the epoch.

3. 1765, August 9th. A large bolide was seen at Greenwich.

4. 1773, August 8th. A fire-ball was seen at Northallerton.

5. 1800, August 8th. A large meteor was seen in different parts of North America.

6. 1802, August 10th. A fire-ball appeared at Quedlinburg.

7. 1807, August 9th. A bolide was seen at Nurenberg.

8. 1810, August 10th. A stone weighing seven and three-quarter pounds fell at Tipperary, Ireland.

9. 1816, August 7th. In Hungary a large fire-ball was seen to burst, with detonations.

10. 1817, August 7th. A brilliant fire-ball was seen at Augsburg.

11. 1818, August 10th. A meteoric stone, weighing seven pounds, fell at Slobodka, Russia.

12. 1822, August 7th. A meteorite fell at Kadonah, Agra.

13. 1822, August 7th. A large meteor was seen in Moravia.

14. 1822, August 11th. "A large mass of fire fell down with a great explosion" near Coblentz.

15. 1823, August 7th. Two meteoric stones fell in Nobleboro', Maine.

16. 1826, August 8th. A fire-ball was seen at Odensee.

17. 1826, August 11th. A bright meteor appeared at Halle.

18. 1833, August 10th. A fire-ball was seen at Worcestershire, England.

19. 1834, August 10th. A bolide appeared at Brussels.

20. 1838, August 9th. A fine meteor was seen in Germany.

21. 1839, August 7th. A splendid fire-ball was seen at sea.

22. 1840, August 7th. A bolide appeared at Naples.

23. 1841, August 10th. An aerolite fell at Iwan, Hungary.

24. 1842, August 9th. A greenish fire-ball was seen at Hamburg.

25. 1844, August 8th. A large meteor was seen in Brittany.

26. 1844, August 10th. A fire-ball was seen at Hamburg.

27. 1845, August 10th. A brilliant meteor was seen at London and Oxford.

28. 1847, August 9th. A large irregular meteor, "like a bright cloud of smoke," was seen at Brussels.

29. 1850, August 10th. A meteor as large as the moon was seen in Ireland.

30. 1850, August 10th. A very large bolide was observed in Paris.

31. 1850, August 11th. A fire-ball was seen in Paris.

32. 1853, August 7th. A bolide was observed at Glasgow.

33. 1853, August 7th. A meteor twice as large as Venus was seen at Paris.

34. 1853, August 9th. A large meteor was seen to separate into two parts.

35. 1855, August 10th. A bluish meteor, five times as large as Jupiter, was seen at Nottingham.

36. 1857, August 11th. A bolide was seen in Paris.

37. 1859, August 7th. A detonating meteor appeared in Germany.

38. 1859, August 11th. A meteoric stone fell near Albany, New York.

39. 1859, August 11th. A fine meteor was seen at Athens.

40. 1862, August 8th. A meteoric stone-fall occurred at Pillistfer, Russia.

41. 1863, August 11th. An aerolite fell at Shytal, India.

III. The Epoch of December 6th-13th.

The following falls of meteoric stones have occurred at this epoch:

1. 1795, December 13th. At Wold Cottage, England.

2. 1798, December 13th. At Benares, India.

3. 1803, December 13th. At Mässing, Bavaria.

4. 1813, December 13th. At Luotolaks, Finland.

5. 1858, December 9th. At Ausson, France.

6. 1863, December 7th. At Tirlemont, Belgium.

7. 1863, December 10th. At Inly, near Trebizond.[18]

IV. The Epoch of April 18th-26th.

For this epoch we have the following aerolites:

1. 1803, April 26th. At L'Aigle, France.

2. 1808, April 19th. At Casignano, Parma, Italy.

3. 1838, April 18th. At Abkurpore, India.

4. 1842, April 26th. At Milena, Croatia.

V. The Epoch of April 9th-12th.

1. 1805, April 10th. At Doroninsk, Russia.

2. 1812, April 10th. At Toulouse, France.

3. 1818, April 10th. At Zaborzika, Russia.

4. 1864, April 12th. At Nerft, Russia.

The foregoing lists, which might be extended, are sufficient to establish the fact that meteoric stones are but the largest masses in the nebulous rings from which showers of shooting-stars are derived; a fact worthy of consideration whatever theory may be adopted in regard to the origin of such annuli.