60 MEMOIRS NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES, VOL. XIII. 



BIBLIOGRAPHY. 



1. 1889: Whitfield. Amer. Journ. Sci., 3d ser., vol. 37, pp. 439. 



2. 1890: Fletcher. Mexican Meteorites. Mineral. Mag., vol. 9, pp. 155-156. 



3. 1891: von Hauer. Ann. K. K. Naturhist. Hofmus. Wien, Bd. 6 (Not.), p. 54; and Bd. 7, 1892 (Not.), p. 72. 



4. 1891: Cohen u. Weinschenk. Meteoreisen-Studien. Ann. K. K. Naturhist. Hofmus. Wien, Bd. 6, p. 162. 



5. 1892: Eastman. The Mexican meteorites. Bull. Philos. Soc. Washington, vol. 12, p. 45. 



6. 1893: Brezina. Ueber neuere Meteoriten (Nurnberg), p. 163. 



7. 1893: Meunier. Revision des fers mgteoriques, p. 44-45. (Illustration of etched surface.) 



8. 1894: Cohen. Meteoritenkunde, Heft 1, pp. 116, 124, 125, 135, 156, 195, 196, and 199. 



9. 1895: Brezina. Wiener Sammlung, p. 271. (Illustration of etched surface). 



10. 1895: Cohen. Meteoreisen-Studien IV. Ann. K. K. Naturhist. Hofmus. Wien, Bd. 10, pp. 82 and 90. 



11. 1905: Cohen. Meteoritenkunde, Heft 3, pp. 374-377. 



BETHLEHEM. 



Albany County, New York. 



Latitude 42° 37' N., longitude 73° 45' W. 



Here also Albany County, 1859, and Troy. 



Stone. Crystalline spherulitic chondrite (Cck) of Brezina. 



Fell 7.20 a. m., Aug. 11, 1859; described 1859. 



Known weight, about 11 grams (0.4 ounce). 



A full account of the meteor which produced the known stone of this fall was given by 

 Wells ' as follows: 



On the morning of August 11, 1859, at 7 o'clock and 20 minutes or thereabouts, thermometer 73°, air still, and the sun 

 Bhining brightly, a meteoric body of great size and brilliancy was observed throughout a large portion of western New 

 England and eastern New York, which, exploding violently, threw down to the earth at least one fragment of its mass, 

 in the vicinity of Albany, New York. 



The main facts connected with this interesting phenomenon, collected from numerous and widely separated observ- 

 ers, are as follows: 



By observers, generally, north of Albany, the meteor is described as appearing in the southeast, at an elevation of 

 from 45° to 60°; thence it passed rapidly to the south, and disappeared a little west of south, at an elevation of from 

 10° to 15°. Its course, throughout its visible range, was marked by a heavy train or trail of smoke, which continued 

 visible for some time after the meteor itself had disappeared; and at two or three points in its course, large volumes of 

 smoke were observed to form, as if the result of successive explosions. These volumes of smoke were observed to be in 

 a state of great agitation, and in size were compared to the cloud of smoke produced by the discharge of a 6-pounder. 



To observers, generally, south of Albany (20 miles or more distant), the meteor was first seen in the northeast, and 

 disappeared to the northwest; a fact which indicates the path of the body to have been nearly coincident with the parallel 

 of Albany. 



A few minutes after the disappearance of the meteor, the lapse of time being variously estimated by differently 

 located observers at from 30 seconds to 2 minutes, two or three loud and successive explosions or reports were heard, 

 accompanied by prolonged echoes and a violent concussion. These sounds have been compared by some to sharp 

 and heavy peals of thunder, to the report attending the explosion of a powdermill, or steam boiler, and also to the 

 rumbling of heavy carriages on a bridge. In Troy, the concussion and jarring were sufficiently intense to suggest the 

 idea of an earthquake; people walking in the streets involuntarily stopped, and for a moment nearly every occupation 

 was suspended. At Schaghticoke, New York, and Bennington, Vermont, where powdermills are in operation, the 

 report was referred to as explosions at the works. At Eagle Bridge, on the Troy and Bennington Railroad , the concussion 

 was forcible enough to jar the windows and shake the seats of a train of cars in motion. At Greenbush. opposite Albany, 

 numbers of people rushed to the docks, under the supposition that a passing steamboat had exploded her boiler. The 

 noise and- concussion also appear to have been noticed to nearly an equal extent, at points 60 miles east of the Hudson, 

 while the whole area over which the sound is positively known to have been heard with distinctness was upward of 

 2,000 square miles. The area of country, on the other hand, over which the meteor was seen, was, as might have been 

 expected, much larger than the area over which the explosions were heard, being at least equal to 6,000 square miles. 

 Thus, observations were made upon it at Morristown, Lamoille County, Vermont, 25 miles north of Montpelier, and at 

 South Manchester, Connecticut, a point nearly 200 miles south; it was also observed at localities west of the Hudson 

 River, and at various points from 30 to 50 miles east of the Hudson. Within a radius of 30 miles northeast and south- 

 east of the city of Troy 5 1 was probably observed by every person out of doors who was at the time looking in a southerly 

 direction; yet such is the unreliability of human testimony as regards natural phenomena that no two observers can be 

 found to agree as to many important particulars, such as apparent size, period of visibility, direction, altitude, etc. 



The estimates lormed of its size are exceedingly discrepant; some observers comparing it to the sun, or full moon, 

 and others to a skyrocket, or the luminous ball projected from a Roman candle. All agree, however, that its appear- 

 ance even in full sunshine was exceedingly bright and dazzling, the light being at the same time of a reddish color. So 



