274 MEMOIRS NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES, VOL. XIII. 



when their attention was suddenly arrested by a rushing sound, proceeding from a dark-colored body, partially envel- 

 oped in smoke, which was moving horizontally through the air, at a distance apparently of only 400 feet above the 

 tops of the trees. They compared its size and shape to those of a blacksmith's bellows, moving with the large end 

 foremost. A bright light or blaze was noticed to hover around the blowpipe extremity of the mass, which vibrated 

 up and down through the space of a few inches. A streak of bright light 100 yards in length followed the blaze. 

 Before there was time to utter a word, the meteor had passed behind a neighboring hill, when a loud explosion ensued. 

 At a place about one mile distant, in the direction of the meteor's passage, two men were at work in a field. They 

 heard the explosion, and saw the stone strike the earth at a distance of 200 yards from where they were standing. It 

 hit the trunk of a tree 18 inches above the ground; and when first discovered seemed enveloped in smoke. (The 

 foregoing statement was supplied by Mr. T. MacDonald.) 



The following letter, dated September 12, 1846, describing the phenomenon, is from Mr. B. B. Harrison, a mer- 

 chant residing in Little Piney, distant about 10 miles from Pine Bluff, where the stone fell. "I recollect the state of 

 the weather on the afternoon of the occurrence. It was perfectly clear and calm. On going out from dinner, I met a 

 man in my door yard who was much alarmed at the sound of a distant cannon, as he supposed, proceeding from a north- 

 westerly direction. On the following day I visited a place 20 miles to the east of this, where the people spoke not 

 only of hearing the same noise, but of seeing a body like a blazing churn pass through the heavens, in a southwesterly 

 direction, the noise, however, proceeding from the northwest. They supposed that something must have fallen from 

 the body within a mile or two of their place. At a place 30 miles farther to the north, the people described the motion 

 of the body as being from the south to the north. I continued traveling about from place to place for several weeks, 

 in the southwestern part of Missouri, and almost every day heard the same object spoken of, although the statements 

 were very discordant in respect to the direction of the meteor. They generally agreed as to the hour of the day. To 

 the citizens of Potosi, which is SO miles east of this place, the report appeared to proceed from the south. 



"After a lapse of some weeks I was presented with a fragment of the stone, which led me to visit the place of its 

 fall. It was at the foot of a hill of very gradual slope, about 0.5 mile from the Gasconade River, 2 miles from the Pine 

 Bluff post office, 10 miles from Little Piney post office, and the same distance from Waynesville. I saw where the stone 

 had struck an oak tree, 18 inches in diameter. The tree was much mangled, though not broken. I saw small parti- 

 cles of the stone still adhering to the tree, and the wood of the tree in the vicinity of the spot where struck, had the 

 appearance of having been burned by gunpowder. The stone was principally carried away, though I was able to 

 procure many pieces, scattered at a distance from the tree. That which I supposed to have been the outside of the 

 stone had a dark brown color, and formed a crust of the thickness of coarse wrapping paper. It had evidently been 

 exposed to intense heat. The injured side of the tree was to the southwest, from which side I was informed that frag- 

 ments of the stone were projected to a very great distance (three-fourths of a mile). 



"Those who first visited the place differ greatly as to the weight of the stone, the estimates varying from 50 to 150 

 pounds; my own opinion is that it must have weighed at least 50 pounds. The place not being far from the public 

 road, the fragments were soon gathered up by travelers, and have been dispersed very widely through the country. 

 It may be proper to add that I am a native of this place, and that I never saw any other stone resembling the one I 

 send you, here or elsewhere; and that it is quite impossible to account for the injury to the tree, except on the suppo- 

 sition of its being produced by a stone falling from the atmosphere." 



The following communication is from M. Frissell, Esq., of Potosi, Missouri, dated March 12, 1842: "The meteor, of 

 which the stone in my possession formed a part, passed in a westerly direction. It must have been large, and I presume 

 that the main body passed on, the piece that fell having formed but a small part of the whole. I did not witness the 

 meteor. Some persons who did compared it to a trumpet in shape, moving with the expanded end foremost. The 

 time of its passage was between 2 and 3 o'clock p. m. Shortly after it had passed the meridian of this place, it 

 exploded with the noise of a heavy piece of ordnance at 2 or 3 miles distant. I was in my office at the time. My 

 first impression was that it was an earthquake. I was soon apprised, however, of what had passed through the air, 

 when I became convinced that the report had proceeded from a meteor. The report was double; like two cannons 

 fired at nearly the same instant, the second being louder than the first. The meteor must have been 20 miles from this 

 place when the explosion took place. I expected that fragments would have been found in this immediate vicinity, 

 but the only one discovered was at Pine Bluff, about 8 miles distant." 



The crust of this stone has about the same thickness as that of the Iowa meteorite, though its line of junction with 

 the mass beneath is less perfectly defined. Its color is rather less black, and its surface less smooth and duller. Judg- 

 ing from one specimen in my possession, which exhibits nearly 2 square inches of natural outside, it would appear 

 that its surface must have been marked by very distinct depressions. The color within also resembles that of the 

 Iowa stone. The stone consists of: 



Olivinoid 40 



Howardite 40 



Meteoric iron. . .} ,_ 



15 



■}■ 



Magnetic pyrites! 



Anorthite 5 



Apatite traces 



100 

 Only about 400 grams of the meteorite are known to be preserved in collections, the 

 British Museum possessing 104 grams. 



