408 MEMOIRS NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES, VOL. XIII. 



BIBLIOGRAPHY. 



1. 1871: Shbpakd. Notice of the meteoric stone of Searsmont, Maine. Amer. Journ. Sci., 3dser., vol. 2, pp. 133-136. 



2. 1871: Smith. Mineralogical and chemical composition of the meteoric stone that fell near Searsmont, Maine, May 



21, 1871. Idem, pp. 200-201. 



3. 1884: Meunier. Meteorites, p. 230. 



4. 1885: Brezina. Wiener Sammlung, pp. 185 and 233. 



5. 1897: Wulfing. Die Meteoriten in Sammlungen, p. 315. 



Searsport. See Searsmont. 



SELMA. 



Dallas County, Alabama. 



Latitude 32° 25' N., longitude 87° 1' W. 



Stone. Spherical chondrite (Cc) of Brezina. 



Found, 1906. 



Weight, 140.6 kgs. (310 lbs). 



The first mention of this meteorite was by Merrill, 1 as follows: 



The writer has received notice from a correspondent in Alabama of the finding, near Selma, in that State, of a 

 heretofore undescribed meteorite. The mass is reported as weighing upwards of 300 pounds, and is of Brezina's kugel 

 chondrite type, much resembling the well-known stone from Tieschitz, in Moravia. It will be known as the Selma, 

 Alabama, stone. A detailed description will be published later. 



A later description was given as follows : 2 



The information relating to the finding of the stone described below was sent the writer by Mr. John W. Coleman, 

 to whom he is indebted for a small fragment and the privilege of describing, as well as information concerning its 

 weight and general appearance. 



The stone, as found, appears to have been a nearly complete individual, a piece of some 3 or 4 pounds weight 

 only having been broken from one side. In shape it is roughly polygonal, without strongly marked flutings or pit- 

 tings, and is considerably shattered and cracked, either from exposure or from the shock of striking the earth. 



The specimen received is without crust, and weathered to a dark reddish-brown on the surface. Total weight of 

 the stone, as reported, 310 pounds (140.6 kgs.). Greatest dimensions, as given by Mr. Coleman, 24 by 14 inches (60.96 

 by 35.5 cm.); circumference, 69 by 44 inches (175 by 118 cm.). Locality, 2 miles north and a little west of Selma, 

 near the Summerfield Road. 



Although not found at the time, the date of fall is considered by Mr. Coleman as July 20, 1898, at about 9 o'clock 

 in the evening. This is on the authority of various witnesses of "a great light passing from east to west, leaving 

 behind it a trail of fire 10 or 12 feet long, and accompanied- by a rumbling noise." One of the persons was so sure of 

 the place of fall that a search was instituted for it at the time. There is, of course, no possibility of establishing abso 

 utely the identity of the stone so recently found and the one seen to fall, but the close proximity of the localities 

 makes it possible. 



Additional data subsequently given by Mr. C. G. Gilbert, who visited the locality in the interests of the late H. 

 A. Ward, are as follows: 



The position of the stone, as found, was such as to suggest that it was first unearthed in the work of digging a 

 trench for the purpose of laying a drain pipe and rolled one side, as would have been done with an ordinary bowlder, 

 where it lay among the weeds until its true nature was surmised by Mr. Coleman. 



As described by Mr. Gilbert in a letter to the writer, the stone at first sight is "a completely formless polyhedral 

 block, but on longer inspection it resolves itself into something of a characteristic aerolite form — a blunt quadrangular 

 pyramid with smooth, unpitted faces and rounded edges." The thickness of the block he gives as 35.56 cm., the 

 basal edges measuring, respectively, 35.56, 43.18, and 50.8 cm. The blunt apex of the pyramid — evidently the front 

 side during flight — was covered for a distance of about 15.24 cm. with a thin coating of carbonate of lime, which pre- 

 sumably marked the depth to which the stone penetrated on first striking the ground. This portion of the stone is 

 smooth, except for the lime coating, and Bhows, as do the sides, the original though now oxidized crust. The base is, 

 however, rough, with a somewhat scaly brown-black appearance, quite unlike the rest of the surface, and is divided 

 by numerous fissures, due to weathering. "The whole appearance," writes Mr. Gilbert, "indicates that it represents 

 what was once a fine, large, well-orientated aerolite, many of the characteristics of which have become obliterated 

 through exposure." 



Macroscopically, the stone is dense, of a dark-gray color, and sufficiently compact to receive a good polish. Cut 

 surfaces show abundant "kugel " chondri of all sizes up to 3 mm. in diameter, though forms above 1.5 to 2 mm. are 

 rare. These are so firmly embedded as for the most part to break with the stone. The metallic portion is quite incon- 

 spicuous to the unaided eye. 



