324 MEMOIRS NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES, VOL. XIII. 



BIBLIOGRAPHY. 



1. 1899: H. L. Ward. Amer. Journ. Sci.,4th ser., vol. 8, pp. 225-226. (With plate showing form of meteorite and 



etching figures.) 



2. 1900: Cohen. Meteoreisen Studien XI. Ann. K. K. Naturhist. Hofmus. Wien, Bd. 15, pp. 3G8-369. 



3. 1905: Cohen. Meteoritenkunde, Heft 3, pp. 227-228. 



Muskingum County. See New Concord. 



NANJEMOY. 



Charles County, Maryland. 



Latitude 3S° 2S' N., longitude 77° 16' W. 



Stone. Spherical chondrite (Cc), of Brezina; Luceite (type 37, subtype 2), of Meunier. 



Fell noon, February 10, 1825; described 1825. 



Weight, 7.444 grams (16^ lbs.). 



The first account of the fall of this meteorite was given by Carver, 1 as follows: 



I take the liberty of forwarding you a notice of a meteoric stone which fell in this town on the morning of Thurs- 

 day, February 10, 1825. The sky was rather hazy, and the wind southwest. At about noon the people of the town 

 and of the adjacent country were alarmed by an explosion of some body in the air, which was succeeded by a loud 

 whizzing noise, like that of air rushing through a small aperture, passing rapidly in the course from northwest to 

 southeast, nearly parallel withrthe river Potomac. Shortly after, a spot of ground on the plantation of Capt. Wm. D. 

 Harrison, a surveyor of this port, was found to have been recently broken, and on examination a rough stone of an 

 oblong shape, weighing 16 pounds 7 ounces, was found about 18 inches under the surface. The stone when taken 

 from the ground, about half an hour after it was supposed to have fallen, was sensibly warm, and had a strong sulphurous 

 smell. It has a hard, vitreous surface, and when broken appears composed of an earthy or siliceous matrix of a light 

 slate color, containing numerous globules of various sizes, very hard and of a brown color, together with small por- 

 tions of brownish-yellow pyrites, which became dark colored on being reduced to powder. I have procured for you a 

 fragment of the stone, weighing 4 pounds 10 ounces, which was all I could obtain. Various notions were entertained 

 by the people in the neighborhood on finding the stone. Some supposed it propelled from a quarry 8 or 10 miles dis- 

 tant on the opposite side of the river, while others thought it thrown by a mortar from a packet lying at anchor in the 

 river, and even purposed manning boats to take vengence on the captain and crew of the vessel. 



I have conversed with many persons living over an extent of perhaps 50 miles square; some heard the explosion, 

 while others heard only the subsequent whizzing noise in the air. All agree in 6tating that the noise appeared directly 

 over their heads. One gentleman, living about 25 miles from the place where the stone fell, says that it caused his 

 whole plantation to shake, which many supposed to be the effect of an earthquake. I can not leam that any fireball 

 or any light was seen in the heavens; all are confident that there was but one report, and no peculiar smell in the air 

 was noticed. 



I herewith transmit the statement of Captain Harrison, the gentleman on whose plantation the stone fell: 



"On February 10, 1825, between the hours of 12 and 1 o'clock, as nearly as recollected, I heard an explosion, as 

 I supposed, of a cannon, but somewhat sharper. I immediately advanced with a quick step about 20 paces, when 

 my attention was arrested by a buzzing noise, resembling that of a humming bee, which increased to a much louder 

 sound, something like a spinning-wheel, or a chimney on fire, and seemed directly over my head, and in a short time 

 I heard something fall. The time which elapsed from my first hearing the explosion to the falling might have been 

 15 seconds. I then went with some of my servants to find where it had fallen, but did not at first succeed (though," 

 as I afterwards found I had got as near as 30 yards to the spot); however, after a short interval the place was found by 

 my cook, who had (in the presence of a respectable white woman) dug down to it before I got there, and a stone was 

 discovered from 22 to 24 inches under the surface, and which, after being washed, weighed 16 pounds, and which 

 was no doubt the one which I had heard fall, as the mud was thrown in different directions from 13 to 16 steps. 

 The day was perfectly clear, a little snow was then on the earth in some places which had fallen the night previous. 

 The stone when taken up had a strong sulphurous smell, and there were black streaks in the clay which appeared marked 

 by the descent of the stone. I have conversed with gentlemen in different directions, some of them from 18 to 20 

 miles distant, who heard the noise, not the explosion. They inform me that it appeared directly over their heads. 

 There was no fireball seen by me or others that I have heard. There was but one report, and but one stone fell to my 

 knowledge, and there was no peculiar smell in the air. It fell on my plantation, within 250 yards of my house, and 

 within 100 of the habitation of my negroes. 



"I have given this statement to Doctor Carver, at his request, and which is as full as I could give at this distant 

 day, from having thought but little of it since. Given this 28th day of April, 1825." 



An analysis of the meteorite was made by Chilton, 2 as follows: 



The piece of Maryland aerolite subjected to examination weighed 228.30 grams in air and lost 62.25 grams by im- 

 mersion in water at 60°. Its specific gravity is therefore 3.66. The external crust was taken off and the remainder 



