METEORITES OF NORTH AMERICA. 193 



FLOWS. 



Cabarrus County, North Carolina. 



Here also Cabarrus County, Cabarras County, and Monroe. 



Latitude 35° 13' N., longitude 80° 32' W. 



Stone. Gray, veined chondrite (Cga), of Brezina; Erxlebenite (type 34), of Meunier. 



Fell 3 p. m., Oct. 31, 1849; described 1850. 



Weight, 8.8 kga. (19.5 lbs.). 



The first account of this meteorite was given by Silliman ' from the account by Gibbon, 1 

 as follows: 



On the authority of a communication from J. H. Gibbon, of the branch mint of the United States at Charlotte, 

 North Carolina, we give a condensed view of facts regarding a fall of meteoric masses in that State, not having room for 

 the less important details. 



On Wednesday, October 31, 1849, at 3 p. m., several persons in the town of Charlotte were astonished, and not a 

 few were exceedingly terrified, by a sudden explosion, followed at short intervals by two other reports, and by a rum- 

 bling in the air to the east and south. 



The sounds were distinct, and continued more than half a minute; they were imputed by some to thunder, but 

 there were no clouds, the evening was calm and mild like the Indian summer, and only a mist was seen in the eastern 

 horizon; nor were the impressions of others better founded that the explosions were due to the blasting of rocks on a rail- 

 road; but Sheriff Alexander, having once before witnessed the explosion of a meteor, justly traced the detonation to 

 that cause. 



The negroes, who are very acute observers of sounds in the open air, denied the thunder, and an old fisherman 

 said that the reports were like those of three pieces of heavy artillery followed by the base drum. Horses both in 

 harness and under the saddle started with alarm. 



Inquiry began to be made for fallen stones, and on Monday a servant of the mint brought in a report from Cabarrus 

 County, 25 miles distant, that there were notices stuck up on the trees inviting people to come and see "a wonderful 

 rock that had fallen from the skies on the plantation of Mr. Hiram Post." 



Mr. Gibbon, of the mint, with Dr. Andrews, traveled 21 miles, and partly at night by torchlight, to see "the 

 large mass of metallic rock." They found, placed in a conspicuous position upon a barrel elevated upon a post, "a 

 bluish gritty rock," of irregular form, 8 inches long, 6 broad, and 4 thick, bearing marks in spots of recent 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 inden- 

 tations usual in meteorites, as if it had been soft and 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 neigh- 

 borhood. Mr. Post took the travelers by torchlight to see the place where the mass fell. He was at the time in company 

 with a young man on horseback; they heard overhead a whizzing sound — the whole atmosphere appeared to be in 

 commotion — they compared the sound to that of a chain shot, or of platoon firing. Nothing was visible; but their atten- 

 tion being directed by the sound toward a large pine tree east of them, they heard the stone strike "with a dull, heavy 

 jar of the ground," while the dog, in terror, crouched at his master's feet. 



Mr. Post (in his peculiar language), had sighted the sound, and his negro man plowing in a field had done the same 

 from a different direction, and by ranging with the aid of these intersecting lines, they found the stone the next morn- 

 ing, which had splintered a pine log lying on the ground. By sounding with a sharp stick in the hole made by the 

 stone in its fall they soon found it, and extricated it from its hiding place, which was 10 inches below the surface; the 

 dried leaves which had been "driven about by the percussion," aided in discovering the spot, which was in the 

 woods about 300 yards from the place where Mr. Post had stood at the moment of the fall, but there were no marks 

 on the trees, although the impression was that numerous small bodies had fallen, "making a noise like hot rocks 

 thrown into water." 



Mr. Gibbon and his companion viewed the place both by torch and daylight, and were convinced of the accu- 

 racy of the statement. 



The people of the vicinity imagined that a rock had been thrown up from a volcano or from blasting, or had come 

 from the moon, and were not easily persuaded that it could be formed in the atmosphere. 



As is usual in cases of extraordinary celestial phenomena, some were terrified by the supposed approach of the 

 day of judgment, or of war, or some other dire calamity, and a militia colonel, in a spirit quite professional, said that 

 "there must be war in Heaven, for they were throwing rocks." 



At the request of Doctor Andrews, the stone was diverted from another destination, in favor of Prof. Charles U. 

 Shepard, of the Medical College of South Carolina, at Charleston, from whom we learn that at a recent date the speci- 

 men had not yet reached him. 



a With laudable liberality and caution joined, the worthy proprietor of the boon which had fallen on his land had annexed a written notice: 

 " Gentlemen, sirs— please not to break this rock, which fell from the skies and weighs 19.5 pounds." 



716°— 15 13 



