324> ACCOUNT AND DESCRIPTION 



analysed, and the details of the analysis, forming a distinct 

 paper, having never been published, are now transmitted 

 to the society. The result of tins analysis has been such 

 as to confirm the general statement of the composition of 

 the stone, which was published in the Herald, but without 

 any of the details or the exact proportions. Under these cir- 

 cumstances, our present communication will probably be consi- 

 dered as sufficiently original, to merit the attention of the 

 respectable body to whom it is transmitted. 



It may be well to repeat, that in the investigation of the 

 facts, we spent several days, visited and carefully examined 

 every place where the stones had been ascertained to have 

 fallen, and several where it had been only suspected without 

 any discovery; conversed with all die principal original wit- 

 nesses, and obtained specimens of every stone. 



We are Sir, respectfully, 



your very obedient servants. 



BENJAMIN SILL1MAN. 



JAMES L. KINGSLEY. 



On the 14th of December 1807, about half past 6 o'clock 

 in the morning, a meteor was seen moving through the at- 

 mosphere with great velocity, and was heard to explode over 

 the town of. Weston, in Connecticut, about 25 miles West of 

 New-Haven. Nathan Wheeler esq. of Weston, one of the 

 justices of the court of common pleas for the county of Fair- 

 field, a gentleman of great respectability and undoubted vera- 

 city, who seems to have been entirely uninfluenced by fear, 

 or imagination, was passing, at the time, through an enclosure 

 adjoining his house, and had an opportunity of witnessing the 

 whole phenomenon. From him the account of the appear- 

 ance, progress, and explosion of the meteor is principally 

 derived. 



The morning was somewhat cloudy. The clouds were 

 dispersed in unequal masses ; being in some piaces thick and 

 opaque, and in others fleecy, and partially transparent. Nu- 



