AEROLITES. 135 



a part of Normandy, including Caen, Falaise, Alencon, and a large number of villages, a 

 fiery globe of great brilliancy moving in the atmosphere with great rapidity. Some 

 moments after, there was heard at L'Aigle and in the environs to the extent of more than 

 thirty leagues in every direction, a violent explosion, which lasted five or six minutes. At 

 first there were three or four reports like those of a cannon, followed by a kind of dis 

 charge which resembled the firing of musketry ; after which there was heard a rumbling 

 like the beating of a drum. The air was calm and the sky serene, except a few clouds, 

 such as are frequently observed. The noise proceeded from a small cloud which had a 

 rectangular form, and appeared motionless all the time that the phenomenon lasted. The 

 vapour of which it was composed was projected in all directions at the successive 

 explosions. The cloud seemed about half a league to the north-east of the town of L'Aigle, 

 and must have been at a great elevation in the atmosphere, for the inhabitants of two 

 hamlets, a league distant from each other, saw it at the same time above their heads. 

 In the whole canton over which it hovered a hissing noise like that of a stone discharged 

 from a sling was heard : and a multitude of mineral masses were seen to fall to the 

 ground. The largest that fell weighed 17^ pounds ; and the gross number amounted to 

 nearly three thousand. By the direction of the Academy of Sciences, all the circum 

 stances of this event were minutely examined by a commission of inquiry with the 

 celebrated M. Biot at its head. They were found in harmony with the preceding relation, 

 and reported to the French minister of the interior. Upon analysing the stones they 

 were found identical with those of Benares. 



The following are the principal facts with reference to the aerolites, upon which general 

 dependence may be placed. If examined immediately after their descent, they have 

 always a temperature more or less elevated. They are almost invariably invested with a 

 peculiar thin crust, consisting chiefly of oxide of iron, often of pitchy lustre, very distinctly 

 defined from the interior mass. What is most remarkable, in the great majority of cases, 

 their chemical analysis develops the same substances combined in nearly the same 

 proportions, though one may have reached the earth in India, another in England, and a 

 third in the United States. Not more than twenty primary ingredients at the utmost 

 have been noticed in them. But some of the best known consist almost entirely of one 

 ingredient, iron, with a small proportion of nickel. Others contain cobalt, manganese, 

 chromium, copper, tin, arsenic, associated with a small per-centage of oxygen, sulphur, and 

 chlorine. Others consist principally of silica and metallic oxides. It should be distinctly 

 noted, that the iron and nickel are almost always in the metallic form a state in which 

 they are not found naturally on the surface of the earth. It is also to be observed, that 

 though a chemical examination of their composition has disclosed no substance with which 

 we were not previously acquainted, yet not only are the majority of terrestrial elements 

 wanting, but while non-metallic ingredients occur in the largest quantities in terrestrial 

 nature, they occur in aerolites in much smaller quantities than the metals. Their ingredients 

 are earthly in their kind ; but while many important terrene elements are absent, those 

 that are present are not mingled in earthly proportions. Neither products of our volcanoes, 

 whether active or extinct, nor the stratified or unstratified rocks, exhibit any example of 

 chemical combination similar to that of the meteoric masses. Thus they differ immensely 

 from things terrestrial, as to the number and relative proportion of their constituents. 

 One non-metallic substance alone, oxygen, is computed to form a third of the weight of the 

 crust of the earth ; and oxygen appears feebly in these remarkable objects. 



During the era that science has admitted the fall of bodies from celestial space 

 scarcely a year has elapsed without a known instance of descent occurring. To 

 Izarn's list, previously given, a great number of examples might be added, which 

 have transpired during the last fifty years. A report relating, to one of the 



