184 MEMOIRS NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES, VOL. XIII. 



15. 1889: FLETCHER. Atacama Meteorites. Mineral. Mag., vol. 8, p. 226. 



16. 1891: TOEEEY and BAHBOUR. Amer. Geol., vol. 8, p. 66. 



17. 1895: MBUNIBR. Revision des lithoside'rites, pp. 30-32. ( Illustrations of etching and thin section.) 



18. 1895: BREZINA. Wiener Sammlung, p. 262. 



Fairfield County. See Weston. 



FARMINGTON. 



Washington County, Kansas. 



Here also Washington. 



Latitude 39 58' N., longitude 97 15' W. 



Stone. Black chondrite (Cs), of Brezina; Tadjerite (type 41), of Meunier. 



Fell 12.45 p. m., June 25, 1890; described 1890. 



Weight, 90 kgs. (197 Ibs.). 







This meteorite was first described by Snow 1 as follows : 



Having seen press dispatches from Washington, the county seat of Washington County, Kansas, announcing the 

 fall of an aerolite near that town on Wednesday, June 25, I visited that county at the earliest possible opportunity 

 for the purpose of ascertaining the facts. I found them to be as follows, and verified by a multitude of witnesses. At 

 about 10 minutes before 1 o'clock on the afternoon of June 25, the sky being free from clouds, a strange noise was 

 heard by thousands of people residing in the counties of Washington, Kepublic, Cloud, Clay, Riley, Pottawatomie, 

 and Marshall, in Kansas, and in the counties of Thayer, Jefferson, and Gage, in Nebraska. The same noise was heard 

 by hundreds of people in counties more distant than those mentioned. 



The descriptions given me of the character of this strange sound were exceedingly various. Mr. E. F. Woodruff, 

 of Clifton, fully 25 miles from the place where the meteor struck the ground, stated to me, that while standing on the 

 front porch of his hotel after dinner, a few minutes before 1 o'clock, his attention was attracted to a rumbling like 

 thunder, which began gently, and increased in power to a maximum, rising even above the din of a Missouri Pacific 

 Railroad train which passed within a few rods during the continuance of the phenomenon. The sound appeared to 

 him to come from the zenith, and to continue for two or three minutes, gradually fading away, and being at no time 

 of an explosive character. Mr. John Yates, of Grant Township, more than 50 miles from Washington, on the con- 

 trary, heard the sound of the flying meteor, and described it as like the report 6f a hundred-pound cannon, which 

 shook his house and jarred the windows. He at first supposed the disturbance to be produced by the explosion of a 

 boiler at Gann's elevator, in the neighboring town of Riley. Mr. Sprengle, father of L. J. Sprengle, of the Washington 

 Republican, not only heard the meteor, but looking toward the zenith, shading his eyes from the glare of the sun, saw 

 just below that luminary a swiftly moving mass of waving mist, followed by a double trail of bluish smoke. 



This aerolite was seen by many observers at a much greater distance from the place where it fell. Mr. D. C. Ruth, 

 of Halstead, Harvey County, Kansas (130 miles distant in a direction slightly west of south), saw a large fire ball mov- 

 ing through the atmosphere at a few minutes before 1 o'clock on June 25. It was also seen at Topeka (87 miles south- 

 east) by a neighbor of H. R. Hilton, Esq. It was reported by the newspapers as having been both heard and seen at 

 Atchison (102 miles distant), and at Leavenworth (115 miles distant), the last two places being in a direction east- 

 southeast from Washington. A note received from C. W. Marston, Esq., of Cedar Junction (130 miles southeast from 

 Washington) makes the following statements: " An aerolite passed in sight of this place on Wednesday, June 25, at 

 about 1 p. m. Of the several who saw it, Mrs. John D. Randall says of it: ' It was a ball of fire as large as a table. It 

 had a trail like a comet, and it wabbled like a kite.' " 



At Beatrice, Nebraska, 40 miles northeast of Washington, it was reported as a brilliant meteor passing over the 

 city from north to south, leaving a distinct fiery trail behind. The fact that at places to the north of the point of col- 

 lision with the earth, the meteor appeared to be moving toward the south, while at places to the south it appeared to 

 be moving toward the north, corroborates the testimony given by the nearly perpendicular sides of the hole it made 

 in the ground, that it passed through the atmosphere from the vicinity of the zenith. 



The meteor reached the ground, and buried itself out of sight 4 feet deep below the 18 inches of upper alluvium 

 in the underlying shaly clay or "gumbo." This spot is located 3.5 miles north of Washington, in Farmington Town- 

 ship, about a hundred yards from the north and south road, near the southwest corner of NW. \ SW. J Sec. 13, T. 2, 

 R. 3 E. The farm belongs to Mrs. Lydia V. Kelsey, of Iowa, and was rented by Mr. J. H. January, who was on that 

 day breaking the prairie sod. The noon hour had not quite expired, and Mr. January was underneath his wagon 

 making some repairs, when he heard the sound of the approaching meteor, and came out to ascertain the cause of the 

 disturbance. He had hardly gained the erect position, when the meteor struck the ground only a few rods distant, 

 throwing up the earth to a height of 40 feet into the air, and outward for about 25 feet. It was also seen to strike the 

 earth by Miss Guild, a teacher, who was returning to her home in the country after her forenoon's attendance at the 

 Washington County Normal Institute, and was at the instant driving her horse and cart along the north and south 

 road, only a 100 yards distant. As soon as her frightened and trembling horse had recovered from the shock, Miss 

 Guild drove to the spot, which she reached at the same moment with Mr. January. As soon as Mr. January had calmed 



