HOVEY, THE FOYER METEORITES 33 
The Brenham meteorite was found in the year 1886 scattered in 
many pieces on the prairie in Brenham ‘Township, Kiowa County, 
Kansas, over an area more than a mile in length. ‘The fragments were 
hardly covered by the original prairie soil, and several of them were 
projecting through the sod. Nearly all were found by being struck by 
mowing machines, plows or other farm implements. ‘The occurrence of 
heavy “rocks” in a region where stones of any kind are a great rarity 
was a source of surprise to the ranchmen and led finally to the discovery 
that they were meteoritic in origin. 
About thirty fragments of the meteorite have been found, several of 
which were used for many purposes about the ranches and had a rather 
prosaic history before their value was learned. ‘The smaller but heavier 
(75-pound) mass here exhibited was used for years to hold down a cellar 
door or the cover of a rain barrel, while the larger but lighter (52.5-pound) 
mass served as a weight on a hay-stack. Itis probable that the meteorite 
of which these are fragments burst soon after reaching the earth’s atmos- 
phere. The total weight of all the fragments of Brenham which have 
been found is about 2,000 pounds; the largest piece known weighs 466 
pounds, the smallest an ounce or two. 
Other specimens of this meteorite may be seen in the Morgan Hall of 
Mineralogy on the Fourth Floor. 
FOREST CITY. 
(Aérolite.) 
On Friday, May 2, 1890, at 5:15 p. M., a brilliant ball of fire shot 
across the sky from west to east in northern Iowa, its flight being accom- 
panied by a noise likened to that of a heavy cannonading, or of thunder, 
and by scintillations like those of fireworks. ‘The meteoric light was 
dazzling even in the full daylight prevailing at the time and the noises, 
which were due to explosions, were heard throughout a district 200 
miles in diameter. ‘This meteor was the Forest City meteorite. 
The meteorite burst when it was about 11 miles northeast of Forest 
City, Winnebago County, whence its name, and most of the fragments 
were scattered over an area about one mile wide and about two miles. 
