Meteor?

Prosaic inhabitants of the small Idaho towns of Bovill, Orofino, Troy, Elk River, Moscow, Genesee, Lewiston, Orchard, Juliaetta and Kendrick, last week were hunting for a big hole in the earth. More superstitious citizens put their heads together, whispered of miracles. On Christmas Eve they had seen a strang light yellow light rip earthwards through the sky of northern Idaho. Then they heard a deafening crash. The flash was seen as far as Spokane, Wash., over 100 mi. Mrs. Joseph Holland, who said she saw it on her way home from church, described the phenomenon for newsgatherers as "three glowing stars surrounded by an electric display." Said she: "I thought of the Star of Bethlehem." Scientist Francis Baker Laney, professor of geology at the University of Idaho, Moscow, thought of meteors when he heard the news.* The flash and crash, he announced, were similar to those which in 1921 attended the fall of a large meteor in the nearby Seven Devils country. Laney thought the new cosmic projectile had been thrown from the constellation Andromeda, wanted to find it for study. Also interested in the accounts was the Midwest Meteor Association at Iowa City, whose duty it is to allow no midwest meteor to remain unfound.

* Although only about four meteros are reported each year, scientists estimate that over 300 hit the earth.

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