Daily independent. [volume] (Elko, Nev.) 188?-1915, 1891-08-28
A METEOR1C MINE.
The Strange Discovery OF an Ore.
gOn Man.

cclveu the other day NJ the O11cc OF the
geological survey in Washington from
a man out in the northeast corner of
Oregon. He said that they were loose
specimens from n nickel minc that he
had discovered and he wanted them as
saycd, because there were vast guam
titles moro in the place he got them
from. Mineralogist Day is under the
impression that, for the first time in
scientific history, mine of mctcoritcs
has been struck. ..s -
1t is not surprising, says the Wash
ington Star. that the finder should sup
pose he had lighted upon surface indi
cations of nickel, after rude assay, in
asmuch as these projcctilcs from tho
heavens, though consisting mostly of
iron, contain usually large percentage
of the substance SO commonly used as IL
metallic veneer. The handful in qucs-
ton arc about siXty-fivc per cent. iron,
thirty per cent. nickel and tho rest
cobalt, which last is metal somewhat
resent bling nickel. The proportion of
nickel is uncommonly large for me-
teorites.
DR.. Day believes that the Oregon man
must have come upon a gully, into
which, under very extraordinary con-
ditions, n great number of mctcorites
had been drifted by the action of water
from n vast cXpansc of hillside where
they had fallen. Hnilstones arc often
similarly piled up. There is no diff
Guilty in determining the fact that the
specimens discussed arc meteoritcs, in
asmuch as such bodies arc nearly al
ways composed of just about the same
materials in definite proportions,
though why no one has ever been able
TO explain. ... .... .r....
Metcors arc very curious things. The
ordinary ones, called shooting" or
failing stars" mostly arc consumed be-
fore they reach the Garth. They take
fire in passing through the atmosphere
by friction with the air. On any fine
night one may sec IN average of eight
or ten of them in an hour, while
practiced observer will catch sight of
twice that number. At intervals the
earth passes through great meteor
trains on it's passage through space in
the tremendous journey the solar sys-
tenn is making toward the constellation
Hercules, in the north, and on such oc-
casions the display of celestial fire.
works is amazing. AS many as ten
Thousand mctcors have been observed
within two hours.
= But the most interesting meteors are
the big ones, naturally. One such is an
event. 1t travcrscs the sky in n flame,
usually eXplodes with dctonation, and
finally buries itself in the ground.
Sometimes it cxplodes before reaching
the Garth. The gigantic meteor known
historically as L'Aigle, burst over
France in 1903 and scattered its material
over seven miles square. The average
distance from the earth to the mcteors
called shooting stars" is about sixty
miles, and their rnpidity of motion
varies from ten to fifty miles d second.
The earth's rate of progress in it's orbit
Is nineteen miles per second. There is
upon tho earth continuous rain Of
metcorites always, and it has been csti-
mated that twenty million such, big
enough to be called shooting stars if
seen at night, fall upon this planet every
twcnty-four hours.
The appearance of u really big mo-
tcorite Is always m event worth record
ing. From time to time such mon
sters from outer space alight upon tho
earth nnd occasion n sensation. For cx-
ample, on the evening of December ..
1910, people IN hnnSitS saw u oTlShl
ball of fire Mt about nine o'clock rush
ing In the western sky near where tho
moon was setting 1t grow in brilliancy
rs 1t rose drawing everybody out OF
doors. Suddenly it passed overhead
dropping into the southeast and talk
ing about two minutes for it's passage
1t was seen to pass by the inhahit
ants Of Nebraska. Iowa, Missouri, Wis
eonsin, Illinois, Michigan, kentucky
Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania and West
Virginia. In the mcteor's path, four OF
Ave minutes after it's passage, were
heard loud explosions, like distant
oannonading, thunder or tho rafting O.
empty wagons over stone roads. 81
loud were these sounds that beasts
were frightened. Over central Illinois
tho fire bill tpns seen to bronx int.