390 PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL MUSEUM vol.90 



again and discovered two pieces of it, the larger about half the size 

 of a man's clenched fist, the smaller, half that size. They were 

 stony meteorites, the outer skin melted, resolidified, and slightly 

 cracked, and they were buried 2 or 3 inches in the grass roots. The 

 impression fitted the stone well, and the stone appeared to have fallen 

 vertically. The farmer reports no flash of light or roar of thunder, 

 but only a noise like an airplane and a great gust of wind. In a 

 neighboring field a cow was discovered to have its hide torn down- 

 ward as if struck a glancing blow by a falling stone, and it was neces- 

 sary to have a veterinarian tend to it. 



Other observers in the neighborhood of Chicora and just north of 

 it heard no thunder roll, but some report hissing sounds. One ob- 

 server, however, an 8-year-old child {21), spoke of the meteor as "the 

 wheels of the thunder wagon." 



Twenty miles farther on, at Oil City, a group was playing tennis, 

 A foreigner yelled "Starfire!" and several observers saw the fire 

 approaching, but falling short of them behind the housetops. The 

 compass observations of their reports place the object rather remark- 

 ably west of most of the other ''shots" and extraordinarily high in 

 the sky. At present neither of these facts can be accounted for(^^). 



At Reno, a few miles west of Oil City, a jeweler {23) observed the 

 fireball approach. It fell, he said, just across the Allegheny River in 

 a deeply wooded ravine. It left a trail of smoke, which slowly drifted 

 away. Nothing was heard, but the azimuth of the "shot" traces a 

 line to Chicora, At Franklui also {2 4) the thing was observed in the 

 direction of Chicora, Still farther north, at Titus ville, a business man 

 {25) in his office happened to notice it, and his observations place it 

 over northeastern Butler County. 



In the west, on the East Palestine golf links across the Ohio border, 

 golfers {26, 27) saw the streak across the eastern sky. On the lower 

 Allegheny, around Oakmont and New Kensington, observers {28, 29, 

 30) saw it in the north. But so far practically no one has been found 

 who saw it against the western sky; east of the trajectory we gel no 

 reports. This is unfortunate for the accurate locating of the trajec- 

 tory. The explanation probably is that the sun was low in the west 

 (18° above the horizon), and if the sky was clear in the west the meteor 

 would not be seen against the smi. And where the thunderheads, 

 black and threatening {5, 6), obstructed the western viev/, the cloud 

 of smoke would not be visible because the sun would not be shining 

 on it, while the flash would be taken for lightning in the west. 



The smoke trail, of vaporized rock, lasted in a clear form for at 

 least half a minute. Yet observers differ greatly in their accounts of 

 it. One man {34) thought it was airplane skywriting and spent his 

 time looking for the airplane in front of the smoke. Another {32) did 



