276 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY. 



in the town of Charlotte were astonished by a sudden explosion, fol- 

 lowed at short intervals by two other reports, and by a rumbling in 

 the air to the east and south. The sounds were distinct, and con- 

 tinued more than half a minute. Some attributed them to thunder, 

 but there were no clouds. A report having reached Charlotte on the 

 following Monday, that " a wonderful rock had fallen from the skies 

 on the plantation of Mr. Hiram Post," Mr. Gibbon, with Dr. An- 

 drews, travelled twenty-one miles for the purpose of seeing the rock. 

 They found it to be a " bluish gritty rock," of irregular form, eight 

 inches long, six broad, and four thick, bearing marks in spots of re- 

 cent fracture, but otherwise black, as if it had been exposed to heat 

 and smoke, the black color being relieved where the crust had been 

 broken, and a little of the clayey soil in which it was buried in its 

 descent still adhered to it. It had the curved indentations usual in 

 meteorites, as if it had been soft and had yielded to impressions, and 

 lustrous metallic points appeared through the ground color, which 

 had generally a bluish slaty appearance, but no such rock was known 

 in the neighborhood. It was said to w r elgh 19-^lbs. 



Mr. Post took the travellers to see the place where the mass fell. 

 He was at the time in company with a young man ; they heard over- 

 head a whizzing sound, the whole atmosphere appeared to be in 

 commotion, and, though nothing was visible, they heard the stone 

 strike east of them " with a dull, heavy jar of the ground." On the 

 next morning, by sounding with a stick in the hole made by the stone 

 in its fall, they found it, ten inches below the surface, about 300 

 yards from the point where Mr. Post was at the moment of the fall. 

 The stone is to be sent to Prof. C. U. Shepard, and in due time we 

 shall have the result of his scientific examination ; but, from the cir- 

 cumstances, we have no hesitation in admitting the case as genuine. 



A later letter from Mr. Gibbon renders it probable, that " luminous 

 materials were seen advancing from several points in the atmosphere 

 towards a common centre, where a solid mass of heated metal ex- 

 ploded, and was violently projected in different directions to the earth." 

 It is stated, also, that there was a distinct appearance of a single 

 fiery elongated body, like iron advanced to a white heat, sparkling in 

 its passage from west to east, rising like a rocket, but not vertically, 

 aud passing through the air with a long white streak or tail following 

 a denser body in the form of a ball of fire. At the explosion, the 

 meteor was about 45 high. The estimation of time between the 

 disappearance of the light and the arrival of the sound was ve^y dif- 

 ferent, some making it as high as five minutes. This is, no doubt, 

 too large, and the meteor was probably not over 15 or 20 miles from 

 the earth when it exploded. It was seen through 250 miles, from 

 the line of Virginia to Sumpter District in South Carolina, and from 

 east to west through 60 miles. Sillimarfs Journal, Jan., 1850. 



BONE CAVES OF PENNSYLVANIA. 



THE following account of the bone caves of Pennsylvania was 

 communicated to the American Association by Prof. Baird : The 



