350 MEMOIRS NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES, VOL. XIII. 



during, or just before, a severe rainstorm. Its fall was preceded by a loud report, resembling that of a large cannon, fol- 

 lowed by four or five less reports. These were heard by many persons in the surrounding country. This stone was seen 

 immediately after the reports to fall to the ground. The observer of its fall was James B. Dooley, Esq. It approached 

 him from the east, appearing while in progress to be surrounded by a luminous halo 2 feet in diameter. It struck the 

 ground only 150 yards from him and buried itself about 18 inches in the soil. When first removed it was still too hot 

 to be handled. As first described by Professor Safford it had one edge broken, showing an ash-gray color within, varied 

 by patches of white, yellowish, and dark colored minerals, while its surface was invested with a very thin black and 

 shining crust as if it had been coated with pitch. One extremity of the stone has an irregular rhomboidal figure meas- 

 uring 2J by 2J inches. Placed upon this end the body presents the form of a slightly oblique and tolerably defined 

 oblique rhombic prism 4 J inches long. The upper end, however, is not well formed but runs up to one side in a some- 

 what flattened edge. Three adjacent sides, including the base, are rough, being covered with cavities and pits, the others 

 are smoother and rounded. The specimen acts upon the needle; fragments of it readily yield particles of nickeliferous 

 iron by trituration in a mortar. The specific gravity of the entire mass is 3.20. 



The following are the results of an examination and analysis made upon fragments of the stone by Prof. J. L. Smith, 

 of the medical department of the University of Louisville. ' ' The minerals present are pyroxene (the principal portion 

 of the mass), olivine, and orthoclase (disseminated), and nickeliferous iron (forming about one-half per cent of the mass). 

 In addition to these there are specks of a black shining mineral not yet examined. The general analysis is as follows: 



Silica 49.21 



Alumina 11. 05 



Protox. iron 20. 41 



Lime 9. 01 



Magnesia 8. 13 



Manganese 04 



Iron 50 



Nickel trace 



Phosphorus trace 



Sulphur 06 



Soda 83 



99.23 



I find the glaze to resemble, in its thickness and general character, that of the Stannern stones, but in its high 

 degree of glossiness it approaches also the Juvenas meteorite. The figure is well described above as being that of a 

 somewhat oblique rhombic prism. It might perhaps be added that at its upper or smaller end there is a tendency to a 

 replacement of the two obtuse angles, each by a single plane, thus producing a sort of dihedral summit whose edge of 

 course coincides with the longer diagonal of the base. The lateral planes, meeting under an obtuse angle, agree in 

 being smooth, together with the replacing plane of the angle at the upper end of the obtuse edge. The corresponding 

 planes, together with the base, possess a totally different character, being rough and deeply pitted. This is a property 

 so general in meteorites as obviously to depend upon a general cause the nature of which, however, it is difficult to 

 conjecture. Sometimes the deeply pitted or undulating surface is confined to two sides in place of extending to three 

 or four, but it is nevertheless often visible upon at least one-third of the general area and occupies it without interruption 

 of patches of the smoother kind of surface. The edges of the uneven planes are less perfectly defined than of the other 

 planes, and this is particularly true of the meeting of the two larger ones in the present instance. 



The heaviest end of this stone is of course toward its basal extremity. It is therefore natural to suppose that its 

 motion must have been with this end in advance. It is curious to observe that there exists a series of delicate wavy 

 lines traversing the crust of the stone from its base quite to its opposite smaller end as if they had been produced from 

 the friction of the atmosphere upon its liquefied crust. Could the escape of electricity have had any influence also in 

 producing such an appearance? The fact of the marking, however, is most obvious whatever may have been the cause. 



Viewed near by the crust is seen to be somewhat variegated in color. Small specks of a yellowish brown and, more 

 rarely, of a yellowish-white color interrupt very frequently the general pitchy hue of the glaze. These lighter-colored 

 portions are translucent and are seen to arise from the character of the subjacent minerals which have undergone fusion. 



The fresh fracture has an ash-gray color, with a slight intermixture of pearl gray for the basis of the stone. Three- 

 fifths of the stone may be said to have this tint. Diffused through this occur rounded and polygonal patches (the largest 

 half an inch in diameter, the smallest scarcely distinguishable by the naked eye) of a highly crystalline snow-white 

 mineral. The former of these minerals I take to be anortbite; the latter is chladnite. The anorthite is often in four- 

 sided, nearly rectangular prismatic crystals with blunted edges and sometimes pitted faces. The largest of these are 

 about one-quarter of an inch in thickness, while the smallest are less than half a rice grain. Some of them are purplish- 

 gray in color. Very distinct crystalline grains of green pyroxene, nearly a quarter of an inch in diameter, are also 

 visible here and there through the stone. They present one very distinct cleavage like ordinary sahlite. In color they 

 vary from pistachio-green to dark blackish grass-green. Olivine in grains of a light-yellowish green color and nearly 

 transparent is everywhere disseminated through the mass, even through the white patches of chladnite where, however, 

 the color fades to a very pale wine-yellow tint. The minute black pitchy crystals were found to exhibit equilateral 

 triangular faces and to possess under the blowpipe the characteristic reactions of chromite. They are very numerous and 

 occur, along with exceedingly fine grains of nickeliferous iron, in every portion of the mass. The pyrite, though proved 



