388 PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL MUSEUM vol.90 



southwest to northeast; and a few seconds past the hour Butler City and 

 the northern part of Pittsburgh were rocked by a terrific explosion, like 

 a long-drawn thunder roll. 



The flash was seen sidelong by some who did not actually witness 

 the meteor; they took it for a lightning flash, though a queer one, 

 and glanced at the western thunderheads. Then the roll came in: 

 the ground seemed to shake as one sat upon it in the garden (14); 

 windows on the east side of the building rattled as if they would 

 never stop (15); at Pittsburgh windows were reported broken (16), 

 though the writer has not verified this. It was realized that this was 

 not thunder. Some thought the boilers in their cellars had exploded; 

 others concluded that a dynamite truck had blown up, as happened a 

 few years earlier just outside the town; then since neither the one nor 

 the other could account for such a massive sound, the rumor spread 

 that the powder magazine at West Winfield had exploded. The 

 rumor was shortly killed by the testimony of eyewitnesses that a 

 great meteor had shot across the sky, in brilliance rivaling the sun 

 (17), which was still high enough in the heavens, and leaving behind 

 it a trail of smoke far whiter than the cumulus clouds beyond it in 

 the north (4). 



The sound of the explosion caused some to believe that the meteor 

 broke into two pieces over Bakerstown (18), and there were reports 

 that a part was actually seen to break off and go in another direction; 

 but the most trustworthy evidence is that there was only one smoke 

 trail, and the "explosion" is naturally accounted for by the sudden 

 expansion of the air in the hot trail and not b}^ a shrapnel-like explosion 

 of rending rock. 



Toward the end of its trajectory the meteor passed into the over- 

 cast area and was observed as a great swirling in the clouds (7) or as 

 something ripping the clouds to pieces (19). The country is here 

 sparsely populated, rough, and forested, with deep rocky ravines. 

 Just to the west lies the oil-refining country of Petrolia, and people 

 supposed at first that the oil tanks were blowing up. The main 

 mass of the meteorite has not been located in spite of much searching. 

 The probable point of impact as determined from the trajectory 

 seems to agree well with the testimony of witnesses busy near the 

 spot, and with the absence of testimony from the river valley towns 

 just beyond, but in spite of much searching nothing has been found, 

 for the country is densely covered with forest and other vegetatioPj 

 and the hillsides are so steep that one must hang onto the trees in 

 places in order to keep upright. What has been found are two small 

 pieces (pi. 54) shed from the main body several miles ahead of the 

 theoretical impact point, and really "discovered" by the chickens. 

 These are the pieces reported upon in detail in the other sections of 

 this paper. 



