50 MEMOIRS NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES, VOL. XIII. 



The inner structure of the stone, as shown in a section, is quite compact and dense, taking a good polish. It is 

 a light gray base, blotched evenly throughout with patches of clove-brown iron oxide. Most of these are cloudlike 

 in indefinite contour; but a few, ranging from 1 to 3 mm. in diameter, are round, and seem to be limited to the decom- 

 position of a single previous iron inclosure. Very few denned chondri are detachable. 



The whole mass is sprinkled liberally throughout with bright iron particles. Most of these are distributed as a 

 bright star constellation; but among them are scattered a small number which are from 1 to 4 mm. in diameter, mostly 

 of irregular, angular shape. In several instances these are broken sharply in two and are crossed by granular troilite, 

 fine-grained and fresh shining. One of these is a 6 mm. triangle in which the three points only are of bright nickel 

 iron, while the balance fs troilite. In two other cases, nodules 2 mm. in diameter have a center of troilite, with a cir- 

 cumference of bright iron. That the brown blotches before referred to are due to the oxidation of iron can not be 

 doubted; but as there has been no opportunity for this process to have gone on, either since the fall of the stone or 

 during its passage through our atmosphere, the question is raised as to its having found the oxygen in the parent body 

 from whence it came? 



Piezographs, or finger-mark pittings, are visible on all surfaces of the mass, yet varying notably on different 

 sides. On two sides they are few in number, and only dim depressions, though still unmistakable in their nature. 

 On the other three surfaces they are frequent, and are 3 to 5 mm. in depth, with area as large as the end of an adult 

 human finger. Some few are independently placed, but most of them are confluent, and show the line of movement 

 of the mass through the furrowing air. One notable gathering is curiously like the crowded tracks of three or four 

 kittens' feet. Two of the smaller sides of the mass have a very different pitting, that thickly crowded raindrop 

 appearance which is often found on a secondary crust which has formed on a fresh surface after the breaking of 

 the mass in the air. In one place there is a furrow 1.5 inches long and 2 to 4 mm. deep and wide, with walls of over- 

 hanging crust. So far as examination has yet been carried, this new aerolite presents no features of form or of 

 composition which are materially different from others of its class. A careful petrographical examination may, how- 

 ever, reveal something of especial moment. The relation of the intruding troilite to the riven particles of nickel 

 iron certainly merits further investigation. 



At my request, Professor Merrill, of the National Museum, has kindly made a couple of slides of the mass, and 

 reports as follows: "The stone consists essentially of olivine and pyroxene, with the usual metallic sprinklings and 

 troilite. There is present also in small quantities a completely colorless, almost isotropic mineral, which is probably 

 maskelynite, although if such is the case, it is a product of original crystallization and has not been altered by fusion, 

 as suggested by Tschermak. The mineral is in too small quantities to be determined accurately from the two sec- 

 tions which I have thus far prepared. The stone is chondritic, but the chondrules show no disposition to separate 

 from the ground mass, and I am inclined to classify it with Brezina's intermediate chondrites (Ci)." 



Miller 3 gave a later account of the fall as follows: 



Since the announcement concerning Bath Furnace Aerolite No. 1, which appeared in Science of January 16, two 

 other pieces have been found; one picked up within 100 yards of where No. 1 fell and the other one three-fourths 

 of a mile south of this. Named in the order in which they were found, we have designated these as No. 2 and No. 3, 

 respectively. 



No. 2 weighed 223 grams. It was completely coated with the black enamel or varnish, and pitted. It has been 

 sawed into two pieces, one for the Field Columbian Museum and the other for the Kentucky State College Museum. 

 It has the same specific gravity and presents the same interior appearance as Bath Furnace No. 1. 



No. 3, found about the middle of May last by a hunter who was led to search for it by noticing a skinned place 

 some distance up on a white-oak sapling, will weigh about 200 pounds. It is also completely coated with the black 

 enamel and is very characteristically pitted and furrowed. These furrows radiate from a smooth nose or boss. It 

 was this portion which bruised its way downward into the base and roots of the tree. The side opposite to this is flat 

 and not furrowed nor pitted, but presents a few nodular excrescences. 



As a result of visiting the locality, examining the places where the pieces struck, and securing the accounts of the 

 residents, all of whom were much startled by the blinding light and terrific detonations accompanying the fall, I gather 

 the following: There was probably one mass originally, which burst at a height of from 8 to 9 miles into many fragments. 

 These fragments struck the earth in a district some 4 miles square, situated in the knobs of the extreme southern portion 

 of Bath County. Most of the region is thinly populated. No. 3 was found almost in the center of this thinly populated 

 district. The accounts given by the residents of the noise made by the "explosion," of the singing of the fragments as 

 they hurtled through the air, and the sound made by their striking the ground or hitting the timber on the knobs were 

 very graphic. 



No. 3, which is probably the main portion of the original mass, has left some record from which possibly the trajec- 

 tory of this celestial body may be computed. From the way in which it grazed the sapling in its descent and bruised 

 its way into the roots of the tree at the base of which it was found, I estimate that it came in from a direction 13° south 

 of west and at an angle from the horizontal of 77°. As previously announced, the altitude of the point of the bursting 

 of the meteor, as seen from Lexington, was 9° 30'. The azimuth of this point is N. 81° E. The point of fall, however, 

 plots out on the map almost due east of Lexington and distant 51 miles. 



Two other Baplings in the vicinity of where No. 3 fell, distant, respectively, about 100 and 200 yards in an easterly 

 direction, have been broken off by missiles striking them from the west. Search for where these buried themselves in 

 the ground was not rewarded with success. 



