METEORITE STUDIES. III. 



BY OLIVER CUMMINGS FARRINGTON. 



LEIGHTON. 



This meteorite fell at 8 p. m., Sunday, January 12, 1907, eight 

 miles south of Leighton, Colbert County, Alabama. The exact place 

 of fall was near the old Bethel church in township 5, range 10, west 

 of the Huntsville meridian. So far as is known to the writer only a 

 single stone of the fall is preserved. To Dr. A. Graves of Leighton 

 and Professor E. A. Smith of the University of Alabama the Museum 

 is indebted for such information as it possesses regarding the fall. 

 According to Dr. Graves the meteor which produced the meteorite 

 passed over the region with a mighty roar which ended in a report 

 something like pistol-firing in rapid succession and from which "par- 

 ticles flew like sparks from a coal of fire." A stone from this meteor 

 struck in the yard of the residence of Mrs. M. D. Allen. Mrs. Allen 

 and her daughter Mattie were standing on their front porch and saw 

 the meteor, heard the explosion, then heard a whizzing in the air and 

 the striking of a stone in the yard. On going to the place they found 

 the stone which is now preserved, sunken to the depth of about 12 

 inches. This stone weighed one pound and fifteen ounces (877 grams). 

 About one ounce was chipped off from one corner by the parties who 

 found the stone, in order to examine its interior. Accordingly the 

 weight of the stone as received by the Museum was one pound and 

 fourteen ounces (850 grams). The shape and size of the stone may 

 be roughly described as like that of a man's fist. It is shown in 

 Fig. 1, Plate LV. The greatest length is 4 inches (10 cm.), the 

 height 2]/ 2 inches (6 cm.). About three-fourths of the surface is 

 covered with crust, the remainder has a rough, irregular, fractured 

 appearance. The lack of crust on part of the uncrusted surface is 

 probably due to the breaking done by the finders, the remainder per- 

 haps represents a fracture of the stone in the air. The large fractured 

 surface is roughly triangular in shape with sides about 3 inches (7.5 

 cm.) in length. The encrusted surfaces of the stone are all smoothed 



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