207 



Dr. Dickinson read a letter from Mr. H. E. Stmonds, giving an ac- 

 count of his recollections of the Fall op an Aerolite in Corrientes, 

 one of the Argentine Provinces, of which the following is an extract : — 



*' Having been deeply engaged in Argentine politics and wars, in 

 184344, I accompanied the Corrientine army in its invasion of the 

 province of Entre Rios. This army returned from that expedition in 

 January, 1844, during exceedingly sultry weather — every day, daring our 

 retreat, we had repeated thunder showers, accompanied by incessant 

 lightning. Our rear, in which I marched, was so continually harassed 

 by Entrerian skirmishers, that for ten days before we gained the Corrien- 

 tine frontier we had no time to sleep or change clothes ; but, so soon as 

 we had passed this, in Carritas Paso, on the river Mocorita, we placed a 

 guard in the pass, and, deeming ourselves secure, the whole division 

 abandoned itself to the profoundest sleep. 



•' From this sleep we were all simultaneously awakened, at about two 

 o'clock in the morning ; and, as if actuated by electricity, each individual 

 of our division, (about 1400 men,) sprung on his feet at the same 

 moment. An aerolite was falling. The light that accompanied it was 

 intense beyond description. It fell in an oblique dii'ection, probably at 

 an angle of about 60°, with the earth, and its course was from east to 

 west. 



" Its appearance was that of an oblongated sphere of fire, and its tract 

 fixim the sky was marked by a fiery streak, gi'adually fading in propor- 

 tion to the distance from the mass, but as intensely luminous as itself 

 in its immediate vicinity. The noise that accompanied it, though uidike 

 thunder, or anything else that I have heard, wa» unbroken, exceedingly 

 loud, and, I need scarcely say, very terrific. Its fall was accompanied 

 by a most sensible movement of the atmosphere, which I thought at 

 first repellant from the falling body, and afterwards it became some- 

 thing of a short whirlwind. At the time I and my companions all 

 agreed that we had experienced a violent electric shock ; but probably 

 this sensation may have been but the effect on our drowsy senses of the 

 indescribably intense light and sudden noise. The spot where it fell 

 was about one hundred yards from the extreme right of our division, 

 and perhaps four hundred from the spot where I had been sleeping. 

 Accompanied by our general, (Dr. Joaquin Madauaga,) I went within 

 ten or twelve yards from it, which was as near as its heat allowed us to 

 approach. 



" The mass appeared to be considerably imbedded in the earth, which 

 was so heated that it was quite bubbling immediately around it. Its 

 size above the earth was perhaps a cubic yard, and its shape was some- 

 what spherical ; it was intensely ignited and radiantly light ; and in 



