not occur more than five thousand years ago, while on the other hand
the rings of growth in the cedar-trees growing on the slopes of the
crater show that they have existed there about seven hundred years.
Prof. William H. Pickering has recently correlated this with an
ancient chronicle which states that at Cairo, Egypt, in the year 1029,
``many stars passed with a great noise.'' He remarks that Cairo is
about 100°, by great circle, from Coon Butte, so that if the meteorite
that made the crater was a member of a flock of similar bodies which
encountered the earth moving in parallel lines, some of them might
have traversed the sky tangent to the earth's surface at Cairo. That
the spectacle spoken of in the chronicle was caused by meteorites he
deems exceedingly probable because of what is said about ``a great
noise;'' meteorites are the only celestial phenomena attended with
perceptible sounds. Professor Pickering conjectures that this supposed
flock of great meteorites may have formed the nucleus of a comet which
struck the earth, and he finds confirmation of the idea in the fact
that out of the ten largest meteorites known, no less than seven were
found within nine hundred miles of Coon Butte. It would be interesting
if we could trace back the history of that comet, and find out what
malicious planet caught it up in its innocent wanderings and hurled it
with so true an aim at the earth! This remarkable crater is one of the
most interesting places in the world, for there is absolutely no
record of such a mass, possibly an iron-headed comet, from outer space
having come into collision with our earth. The results of the future
exploration of the depths of the crater will be awaited with much
interest.

The Wrecking of the Moon

There are sympathetic moods under whose influence one gazes with a