Many records of the fall of meteorites have been found in ancient annals, and in modern times, with so many observers continually watching the sky, the number of meteorites seen in flight is annually quite large, although the actual falls observed are always compara tively rare. The number entering the earth's atmosphere in a year has been estimated all the way from 70 up to 3,000 or 4,000. In 1879, on 10 'May, there was a shower of meteoric stones in Iowa, the largest mass weighing more than 400 pounds. The last considerable fall in this country was recorded on 19 1912, when a remarkable detonating meteorite fell near Holbrook, Ariz. In this case the explosion so completely shattered the mass that the largest fragment found weighed but 14 pounds. Upward of 14,000 separate stones were gathered, their total weight being 481 pounds.
Perhaps the most famous meteorite of an tiquity was the so-called stone of Egos-Pota mos, which fell in Thrace in 466 s.c., and which was described as equaling two millstones in size. Plutarch speaks of it in his life of Lysander. In the Middle Ages the Stone of Eusisheim was very celebrated and became the object of superstitious reverence. It fell at Eusisheim in Alsace on 7 Nov. 1492, when the Emperor Maximilian was at that place. Frag ments of this body were taken to Paris and London, but the principal mass, weighing more than 200 pounds, was suspended in the choir of the church of Eusisheim.
Almost every large meteorological museum contains specimens of meteoric stones and meteoric irons. There are some remarkable ex amples in the National Museum at Washington. An iron mass, supposed to be of meteoric iron, discovered at Cafion.Diablo, Arizona, proved, on examination a few years ago, to contain minute black crystals resembling the diamond, and a meteorite which fell in Russia contained similar black crystals of carbon.
It is yet a disputed question whether the huge masses of iron, weighing many tons, which were brought from Greenland to Stock holm by Baron NordenskjOld, are really of meteoric origin. The same question attaches to a similar mass which Rear Admiral Peary trans ported from Greenland to New York. Other masses of this kind exist in various parts of the world. There is no record of their having fallen from the sky. A complete catalogue of all the meteorites of North America, together with a description of their falls, an analysis and a detailed description of the structure in each of them, and also a very complete bibliography was published in 1915 by O. C. Farrington. This work forms volume XIII of the 'Memoirs of the National Academy of Sciences) (Wash ington).