Sept 30, 1875] 



NATURE 



485 



SOME LECTURE NOTES UPON METEORITES 



"^OWHERE in the " Cosmos" does Alexander von Humboldt 

 -'-^ show more vividly his keen appreciation of all the grander 

 operations of nature than in those passages in which he discusses 

 the subject of meteors, and in which he gives us a forecast of the 

 connection of those striking and still not entirely explained phe- 

 nomena with other celestial spectacles, such as the apparition of 

 comets and the fall of meteorites. 



Thus Humboldt dwells with a lingering interest on the subject 

 of the meteoric showers which in their grandest form, cri at least 

 one, and generally en some successive Novembers in every gene- 

 ration, and in a less brilliant degree on every loth of August, 

 illuminate the sky with countless lines of momentary light. And 

 while bringing the occurrence of these swarms of meteors with 

 much vividness before 'our eyes, he treats them as a special 

 form of the same display presented by the single meteor, that, 

 gliding down the sky, leaves its thread of light to illumi- 

 nate a few degrees of the great arc described on the dome of 

 heaven by the meteor ; nor does he hesitate lo link these pheno- 

 mena into one series with those larger mcteoroids that we call 

 fueballs, and which sometimes light up the whole heavens, and 

 may occasionally be seen over half a continent. And we may go 

 on with Humboldt to connect with these greater meteors a class 

 of still more striking phenomena accompanying the descent gene- 

 rally out of a dark cloud when seen in daylight, or with a bright 

 flame, when seen by night, of meteoric stones, heralded by sounds 

 as of thunder. 



Within the last few years the cases of recurring periods of 

 meteoric showers have been considerably multiplied, while these 

 and the comets have been recognised by astronomers as belonging 

 to the same order of celestial objects : and we are now enabled 

 to group the whole of the phenomena we are considering under a 

 single category with a confidence far greater than that on which 

 Humboldt built his surmise regarding them. 



It is with the meteoric bodies that fall from out of a cloud 

 when seen by day, and in fiery mass where the light can be dis- 

 tinguished, and accompanied by detonations like cannon, that 

 we are going more immediately to deal here ; and it may be well 

 therefore, without recalling the descriptions that may be found 

 in many treatises of some of the more familiar meteoric falls, 

 such as those of L'Aigle and of Braunau, to recount the evidence 

 of eye-witnesses of these events on other occasions. The follow- 

 ing is a contemporary account of the fall of a shower of stones in 

 the county of Limerick, at Adare, on Sept. 10, 1813 : — 



" Friday morning, the lOtli September, 1813, being very calm 

 and serene, and the sky clear, about 9 o'clock, a cloud appeared 

 in the east, and very soon after I heaid eleven distinct reports, 

 appearing to proceed thence, somewhat resembling the discharge 

 of heavy artillery. Immediately after this followed a considerable 

 noise not unlike the beating of a large drum, which was succeeded 

 by an uproar resembling the continued discharge of musketry in 

 line. The sky above the place whence this noise appeared to 

 issue became darkened and very much disturbed, making a hissing 

 noise, and from thence appeared to issue with great violence dif. 

 ferent masses of matter, which directed their course with great 

 velocity in a horizontal direction towards the west. One of these 

 was observed to descend ; it fell to the earth, and sank into it 

 more than a foot and a half, on the lands of Scagh, in the neigh- 

 bourhood of Patrick's Well, in the county of Limerick. It was 

 immediately dug up, and I have been informed by those that 

 were present, and on whom I could rely, that it was then warm, 

 and had a sulphurous smell. It weighed about 17 lbs., and had 

 no appearance of having been fractured in any part, for the whole 

 of its surface was uniformly smooth and black, as if affected by 

 sulphur or gunpowder. Six or seven more of the same kind of 

 masses, but smaller, and fractured, as if shattered from each other 

 or from larger ones, descended at the same time with great 

 velocity in different places between the lands of Scagh and the 

 village of Adare. One more very large mass passed with great 

 rapidity and considerable noise at a small distance from me; it 

 rame to the ground on the lands of Brasky, and penetrated a 

 very hard and dry earth about two feet. This was not 

 taken up for two days ; it appeared to be fractured in 

 many places, and weighed about 65 lbs. ! Its shape was rather 

 round, but irregular. It cannot be ascertained whether the small 

 fragments which came down at the same time corresponded with 

 the fractures of this large stone in shape or number, but the un- 

 fractured part of the surface has the same appearance as the one 

 first mentioned. There fell also at the same time, on the lands 



of Faha, another stone, which does not appear to have been part 

 of or separated from any other mass ; its skin is smooth and 

 blackish, of the same appearance with the first-mentioned ; it 

 weighed above 74 lbs. ; its shape was very irregular. This stone 

 is in my possession, and, for its volume, is very heavy. 



" There was no flash of lightning at the time of, or immediately 

 before, or after the explosion ; the day continued very calm and 

 serene, was rather close and sultry, and without wind or rain. It 

 is about three miles in a direct line from the lands of Brasky, 

 •where the very large stone descended, to the place where the 

 small ones fell in Adare, and all the others fell intermediately ; 

 but they appeared to descend horizontally, and as if discharged 

 from a bomb and scattered in the air." 



The next account is that of a stone that fell at Durala, or 

 Dooralla, on February 18, 1815. 



Extracts Jrovi a Letter jrcm Caft. G. Bird. 



" Loodiana, April 5, 1815. 

 " On the 1 8th February last, some people who were at work 

 in a field about half a mile distant from the village of Dooralla 

 were suddenly alaimed by the explosion of what they conceived 

 to be a large cannon, ' the report being louder than that of any 

 other gun they had ever heard,' which report was succeeded by 

 a rushing noise like that of a cannon ball in ils greatest force. 

 When looking towards the quarter whence the noise proceeded, 

 they perceived a large black body in the air, apparently moving 

 directly towards them, but, passing whh inconceivable velocity, 

 buried itself in the earth at the distance of about 60 paces from 

 the spot where they stood. The Brahmins of the village, hearing 

 of it, proceeded to the spot w ith tools for digging it up. They 

 found the surface broken, and the fresh earth and sand thiown 

 about to a considerable distance, and at the depth of lather more 

 than 5 ft. in a soil of mingled sand and loam they found the stone, 

 which they cannot doubt was what actually fell, being altogether 

 unlike anything known in that part of the country. The Brah- 

 mins conveyed it to the village, covered it with wreaths of flowers, 

 and started a subscription for the purpose of raising a small 

 temple over it. It fell on the i8th of February, about mid-day, 

 in a field near the village of Dooralla, which lies about lat. 30° 

 20', long. 76" 41', within the territory belonging to the Patlialah 

 Rajah, 16 or 17 miles from Umbalia, and 80 from Loodiana, 

 The day was very clear and serene, and, as usual at that season 

 of the year, not a cloud was tc be seen, nor was there in the 

 temperature of the air anything tc engage their attention ; the 

 thermometer of course may be stated about 68" in the shade. 

 The report was heard in all the circumjacent towns and villages, 

 to the distance of 20 coss, or 25 miles, from Dooralla. The Rajah 

 having been led to consider it as a messenger of ill omen, accord- 

 ing to my wish gave immediate orders for its conveyance to Loo- 

 diana, but with positive injunctions that it should not approach 

 his place of residence. It weighs rather more than 25 lbs., and 

 is covered with a pellicle thinner than a wafer, of a black sul- 

 phureous crust, though it emits no smell of sulphur that I can 

 discover. It is an ill-shapen triangle, and from one of the ccr- 

 ners a piece has been broken off, either in its fall or by the in- 

 struments when taken out of the ground. This fracture disclose* 

 a view of the interior, in which iron pyrites and nickel are dis- 

 tinctly visible. No Hindoo ventures lo approach it but with 

 closed hands in apparent devotion, so awful a matter is it in their 

 eyes. " 



This aerolite was brought from India by Lieut. -Col. Penning- 

 ton, and presented to the Hon. East India Company. It is now 

 in the British Museum. 



The next description is that of the fall of a stone at Manegaum, 

 in Kandeish, on June 29, 1843. The account is given by two 

 Hindoo eye-witnesses : — 



" On the day the aerolite fell we were both seated, about 

 3 o'clock in the afternoon, on the outskirts of the village, in a 

 shed belonging to Ranoo Patel, There was at the time no rain, 

 but heavy clouds towards the northward. There had been several 

 claps of thunder for two hours previously, and some lightning. 

 Suddenly, while we were seated in the shed, several very heavy 

 claps of thunder occurred in quick succession, accompanied with 

 lightning, on which we both went out to look around us, when, 

 in the middle of a heavy clap, we saw a stone fall to the ground 

 in a slanting direction from north to south, preceded by a flash 

 of lightning. It fell about 50 paces from us. On going up to it 

 we found that it had indented itself .some four or five inches into 

 the ground ; it was broken in pieces, and, as far as we could judge, 

 appeared to be about fifteen inches long, and three inches in dia- 

 meter, of an oblong shape, somewhat similar to a Chouthe grain 



