Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 64.djvu/358

354 found in the two hemispheres. Thus, taking falls and finds together, of the 256 meteorites known from the western hemisphere, 182 are irons and only 74 stones; while from the eastern hemisphere, of 378 known, 299 are stones and only 79 are irons. Professor Berwerth has sought to account for the excess of irons in the new world by the suggestion that the dry air of the desert areas which abound in this hemisphere has preserved meteorites fallen in long distant periods, while those of a similar age in the other hemisphere have been exposed to a moist climate and have for the most part been decomposed. It is true that many of the iron meteorites known from the western hemisphere occur upon the Mexican and Chilean deserts, but quite as many come from the southern Appalachians, where a comparatively moist climate prevails. There are also numerous desert areas in the old world perhaps as fully explored as those of the new, so that on the whole the above explanation seems inadequate.

Other remarkable groupings of meteorites with regard to their geographical distribution may be noted when areas smaller than hemispheres are compared. Thus of a total of nine meteorites belonging to the peculiar class called howardites, five have fallen in Russia. Of the nine meteorites known belonging to the still more remarkable class of carbonaceous meteorites, three have fallen in France and two in Russia.

Again small areas of equal extent and equally well populated vary curiously in their number of meteorite falls. Within the state of Illinois, for instance, no meteorite is known ever to have fallen, while in the state of Iowa, which has about the same area, but a smaller population, four falls have been noted, and from the state of Kansas, which has a larger area than Illinois, but a smaller and less uniformly distributed population, twelve meteorites are known.

It is usual to dismiss inquiries regarding the meaning of such groupings with the remark that they are mere coincidences. But it is the mission of science to investigate coincidences, and however long the task may be of determining the laws which bring about the particular occurrences here referred to, there can be no doubt that they are the result of law and of law which will some day be discerned by the human mind.