Answer.—This mild expression for “I won’t betray my informer,” is not a literal quotation, but is undoubtedly borrowed from Ecclesiastes, chapter x, verse 29: “Curse not the King, no, not in thy thoughts: and curse not the rich in thy bedchamber: for a bird of the air shall carry the voice, and that which hath wings shall tell the matter.”
METEORIC STONES.
Wyoming, Wis.
When and where did the largest meteoric stone, of which there is any record, fall? Please give a description of the meteoric stone that fell in Iowa a few years ago.
William Yale.
Answer.—An immense aerolite, or meteoric stone, fell near Ægospatami, in Asia Minor, in 467 B. C., which was described by Pliny as being as large as a wagon. There is a remarkable one in the Smithsonian Institution, weighing 1,400 pounds, which fell in Mexico about A. D. 1500. The largest meteoric masses on record were heard of first by Captain Ross, the Arctic explorer, through some Esquimaux. These lay on the west coast of Greenland, where they were subsequently found by the Swedish Exploring Expedition of 1870. One of them, now in the Royal Museum of Stockholm, weighs over 50,000 pounds, and is the largest specimen known. Two remarkable meteorites have fallen in Iowa within a few years past. On Feb. 12, 1875, a very brilliant meteor, in the form of an elongated horseshoe, was seen throughout a region of at least 400 miles in length and 250 breadth, lying in Missouri and Iowa. It is described as “without a tail but having a sort of flowing jacket of flame. Detonations were heard, so violent as to shake the earth and to jar the windows like the shock of an earthquake,” as it fell, at about 10:30 o’clock p. m., a few miles east of Marengo, Iowa. The ground for a space of some seven miles in length by two to four miles in breadth was strewn with fragments of this meteor, varying in weight from a few ounces to seventy-four pounds; the aggregate of the parts discovered being about five hundred pounds.
On May 10, 1879, at about 5 o’clock p. m., a large and extraordinarily luminous meteor exploded with a terrific noise, followed at slight intervals with less violent detonations, and struck the earth in the edge of a ravine, near Estherville, Emmet County, Iowa, penetrating to a depth of fourteen feet. Within two miles other fragments were found, one of which weighed 170 pounds and another 32 pounds. The principal mass weighed 431 pounds. All the discovered parts aggregate about 640 pounds. The one of 170 pounds is now in the cabinet of the State University of Minnesota. The composition of this aerolite is peculiar in many respects; but, as in nearly all aerolites, there is a considerable proportion of iron and nickel.
A SKELETON IN EVERY CLOSET.