ASTRONOMY AND METEOROLOGY. 309 



peculiar black meteoric crust. Internally they arc of a bluish-gray color, 

 and show numerous brilliant points of nickeliferous iron. 



Professor C. U. Sheparcl thus reports on the composition of the large 

 fifty-three-pound specimen: In its internal aspect it approaches the stone 

 of Jekaterinoslaw, Russia (182.3), though it is somewhat firmer and more 

 compact. In crust the two are identical. It is also similar to the stone of 

 Slobodka, Russia (August 10, 1808), and compares closely with those of 

 Politz (October 13, 1819), of ISTanjemoy, Maryland (February 10, 1828), and 

 of Kuleschowka, Russia (March 12, 1811); but the crust is less smooth on 

 the Ohio stone than in that of the latter. A pearl-gray peridot forms the 

 chief constituent (above two-thirds) of the stone. This mineral is often 

 rolled up into obscurely-formed globules, which are so firmly imbedded in 

 the more massive portions of the same mineral as to be broken across on 

 the fracture of the stone, which therefore presents a sub-pisiform appear- 

 ance. Snow-white particles of Chladnite are thickly scattered in mere specks 

 through the mass, and closely incorporated with the peridot. The nickelic 

 iron, of a bright white color, is also everywhere thickly interspersed in little 

 points. Pyrrhotine is less conspicuous, though often visible in rather broad 

 patches; while black grains of chromite are easily distinguishable by the 

 aid of a glass, and sometimes with the naked eye. 



According to Professor Evans, of Marietta, Ohio, the results of the various 

 observations give to the meteor a height of forty -one miles over the northern 

 boundary ot Noble County, a diameter of three-eighths of a mile, and a 

 relative velocity of nearly four miles a second. 



It was seen, through openings in the clouds, at various points along a line 

 of sixty miles, extending from near Newport on the Ohio River to the neigh- 

 borhood of New Concord. The evidencej upon the whole, does not indicate 

 any descent of the body towards the earth between these limits, or any 

 change in its size or appearance. From this fact, and the great height of 

 the body, and the absence of all evidence that it was seen or heard in the 

 northern part of the state or beyond, it seems probable that this meteor was 

 not dissipated in the atmosphere, bj.it passed out of it again. The shower of 

 stones which came down near New Concord had probably been detached 

 from the principal mass before the latter came into sight. 



Dr. J. Lawrence Smith, of Louisville, Ky., after an examination of all the 

 facts connected with this phenomenon, writes to Silliman's Journal that he 

 is of the opinion that no fall of meteoric stones before recorded possesses so 

 many points of interest as the one in question surpassing even the far- 

 famed fall at L'Aigle, in France. 



Meteor of August 11, I860. During the past year the only fragment of the 

 great meteor which exploded and was seen over a large district of New Eng- 

 land and New York on the llth of August, 1800, l has been examined by 

 Professor Shepard, who reports respecting it, in Silliman's Journal, as follows : 

 The crust of the stone found at Bethlehem (Albany County, N. Y.) is very 

 peculiar. It is double the thickness of any in my collection, equalling that 

 of thick pasteboard. It is perfectly black, and very open in its texture. 

 The outer surface is rough, being nowhere perfectly fused, but only semi- 

 vitrified. Without being fragile or carbonaceous, it nevertheless resembles 

 in color, lustre, and porousness, certain surfaces of mineral charcoal. The 



1 See Annual of Scientific Discovery , 1860, pp. 415-1". 



