222 LIFE OF BENJAMIN SILLIMAN. 



and a newly converted one, would presume to indite, the 

 dampened sheets being ready for the press : but the re- 

 proofs were cancelled when the cause of my absence was 

 made known, and the Weston Meteor furnished an inter- 

 esting subject for future annotations. I may as well men- 

 tion in this place, that my edition of " Henry," with notes 

 and other addenda, met with so much favor, that two other 

 editions under my hand followed, and these editions were 

 generally adopted in the schools. 



I have introduced a digression in my narrative, as there 

 was a digression of events. In Europe I had become ac- 

 quainted with meteorites and the phenomena that usually 

 attend their fall, and several specimens had come under 

 my notice. I did not dream of being favored by an event of 

 this kind in my own vicinity, and occurring on a scale truly 

 magnificent. The event happened on December 14th, 1807. 

 In the morning of that day, at early dawn, (6^ o'clock,) 

 a grand fire-ball passed over the town of Weston in the 

 county of Fairfield, apparently two thirds as large as the 

 moon. Its motion was mainly from the N. to S., rising 

 rapidly towards the zenith, with a vermicular or serpentine 

 motion. Several loud explosions took place near the zenith, 

 like heavy cannon, with intermediate and subsequent dis- 

 charges like those of musketry. There were three princi- 

 pal explosions, during which the fire-ball travelled about 

 ten miles, and at each of those explosions stones fell to the 

 earth, some of them very large, twelve, twenty, and 

 even thirty-six pounds in weight. One mass that was split 

 to pieces upon a rock and ploughed its way into the earth, 

 might have weighed a hundred or two hundred pounds. 

 It made a hole in the ground of five feet long, four and a 

 half broad, and almost deep enough for a grave. It was 

 ascertained that stones fell at six places, and probably at 

 many more, as the report of falling bodies was heard in 

 various directions, several of which were examined, both 

 with and without success. The report of these events did 



