io Field Columbian Museum — Geology, Vol. i. 



The Moslems sacredly preserve at Mecca a stone whose history 

 goes back beyond the seventh century, the descriptions of which 

 leave little doubt that it was of extra-terrestrial origin. 



The traveler Pallas found in 1772 a stone at Krasnojarsk (159) 

 in Siberia, which was regarded by the Tartars as a "holy thing 

 fallen from heaven." As it has well marked meteoric characters, 

 their tradition regarding it was probably based upon observation of 

 its fall. 



A large mass of iron was found in Wichita County (41) Texas, a 

 few years ago, which had been set up by the Indians as a kind of 

 "fetich " or object of worship and revered by them as a body foreign 

 to the earth and coming "from the Great Spirit." It was set up at a 

 point where several trails met and was evidently visited periodically by 

 them. This, too, was found upon examination to have the characters 

 of a meteoric iron, so that it is probable that its fall had been wit- 

 nessed by some member of the race at a previous period. 



Ornaments made of meteoric iron have also been found upon the 

 altars of mounds in Ohio, indicating that they may have been used as 

 objects of worship by the Mound Builders. 



The Chinese preserve many accounts of the fall of stones from 

 the sky, the earliest recorded being about 644 B. C. 



The oldest stone still preserved which is positively of meteoric 

 origin is that of Ensisheim (207) Elsass, Germany. This fell No- 

 vember 16, 1492, between 11 and 12 A. M., making a hole about five 

 feet deep in the ground. The stone weighed 260 pounds. King 

 Maximilian being at Ensisheim at the time had it carried to the castle 

 and after breaking off two pieces, one for the Duke Sigismund of 

 Austria and the other for himself, forbade further damage and 

 ordered it to be suspended in the parish church, where it is said it 

 may still be seen hanging by a chain from the vault of the choir. 



Although the fact of the fall of stones from the sky seemed thus 

 so well established, the haze of superstition and exaggeration by 

 which the accounts of such occurrences were surrounded was so 

 great that scientific men were slow to believe in the possibility of 

 such a phenomenon. 



Moreover the advance of knowledge instead of furnishing addi- 

 tional reason for belief that bodies could reach the earth from the 

 universe beyond, in fact made it seem very improbable. The courses 

 of the heavenly bodies were found to be controlled by such immuta- 

 ble laws that any irregularity seemed impossible. The accounts of 

 stones falling from heaven therefore were generally regarded by 



