CHICORA METEORITE — PRESTON, HENDERSON, RANDOLPH 389 



The belt of country over which the meteor was observed is a long, 

 narrow one. The soutliernmost point reporting is Nineveh, Pa. (see 

 map, pi. 55), and the northernmost is Titusville. From these points 

 the meteor was seen, but not heard. At Washington, Pa., the meteor 

 was observed by several people but was not heard, although a power- 

 ful smell of sulphur was reported 15 or 20 minutes after the apparition. 



Most of the observers were somewhat directly on the track of the 

 meteor, i. e., under it to the south or beyond it at the north end, and 

 only a few were sufficiently to one side of it to provide good inter- 

 secting shots upon the trajector3^ However, a couple of good obser- 

 vations were obtained from eastern Ohio, and there were some, a 

 little less accurate, from points east of the trajectory. 



The time of day and year and the climatic conditions were favor- 

 able for the phenomenon to be observed by many witnesses. A con- 

 siderable number of them have been interviewed in order to get the 

 best possible estimate of the trajectory, in hope of locating more 

 pieces of the meteor, and also to get the most accurate description 

 possible of the phenomenon, for it will surely be rare for a great 

 meteor to fall so obligingly in full view of thousands of witnesses 

 spread over so wide an expanse of fairly well populated country. 



From their reports, the trajectory has been reconstructed (let us 

 hope without too great inaccuracy) as described later, and illustrated 

 (map, pi. 55). Some of the observers add interesting details. 



The meteor passed like a flash, leaving behind it a very narrow 

 trail of smoke like a pencil mark on the blue sky (17); almost instantly 

 (the observer estimated IK seconds) this expanded sideways until it 

 was about wide enough to block out the moon (the moon was not 

 visible then). Another observer reports a spiraling (11) of the smoke. 

 Two independent observers report the smoke as drifting slightly to 

 the northwest. In these latitudes, the upper air currents are some- 

 what persistently /rom the northwest. The "winds-aloft" report from 

 the United States Weather Office in Pittsburgh fails to indicate any 

 such drift, and either observers are in error or some local disturbance 

 affected the smoke, or the Weather Bureau observations are incom- 

 plete. At noon and at 4 p. m. on June 24 the Bureau's observations 

 were obstructed by cloud at 4,000 feet. 



After the fireball passed Coopers town, and before the sound arrived, 

 a large flock of geese, swimming on a pond, all left the water, climbed 

 onto the land, flapped their wings, and honked furiously (4> iU ^0). 



At Chicora, a farmer (10) was sitting on his porch when there 

 came a sound like an approaching airplane, and a great gust of wind. 

 The chickens in a nearby paddock were wildly excited and objected 

 to something in their midst, but a search failed to disclose what it 

 was all about. Next day, hearing of the meteorite, the farmer searched 



