METEORITES OF NORTH AMERICA. 373 







in your cabinet which was part of a atone that fell in Connecticut many years ago, an account of which is published in 

 the American edition of Rees's Cyclopedia. After some inquiry I obtained the greater part of the stone weighing 3 

 pounds 3 ounces avoirdupois. Most of the exterior is of a dark gray color, about one-third is covered with a black 

 crust. The fracture Ls granular and of a light gray, interspersed with white metallic points which yield easily to the 

 knife. For several days after the stone was taken from the earth it retained a strong scent of sulphur. The exterior 

 exhibited several cavities from the size of a pea to that of a mustard seed, many of these are filled with earth and with 

 fibers of the turf through which it passed on striking the earth . The -whole stone, when entire, waa said to have weighed 

 about 4 pounds. Its form is nearly spheroidal and its specific gravity about 4. 



The facts in relation to its fall, as I obtained them from a friend who visited the spot on the 7th of June, the day 

 after I got possession of the stone, are as follows: 



An overseer and several negroes were at work in a field belonging to Mr. Matthew Winfree about 9 o'clock on the 

 morning of the 4th. An explosion was heard in the direction of Richmond toward the northeast which was at first 

 mistaken for the report of a cannon, and in a short time after there was a noise which was thought at first to be the 

 rumbling of a carriage on a neighboring stony road . In a few seconds, however, it was perceived to be rapidly approach- 

 ing and presently after seemed to be just overhead, when it passed beyond and ended by a sound resembling the fall 

 of a heavy body on the earth. The persons hastened toward the place from which the stroke proceeded and, after con- 

 siderable search, found a hole in the turf which seemed to have been made by the entrance of a ball; they dug and 

 got the stone above described. The stone had buried itself about 12 inches; the distance of the hole from the point 

 where the persons were standing when the stroke was heard was found by measurement to be 260 paces. 



The person who gave the above account saw the hole the third day after it had been made. The bed from which 

 the stone was taken was entire when he was there and of the size and shape of the body said to have been taken from it. 



A specimen will be submitted to the professor of chemistry at our university as soon as possible. J should have 

 great pleasure in sending it for your inspection but for the difficulty of getting it to New Haven. 



A later detailed description and account was given by Shepard, 2 as follows: 



Since collections of meteoric stones have begun to be formed and a more nice attention to be bestowed upon their 

 differences and resemblances our information concerning their nature, as might have been expected, has been greatly 

 augmented ; and although we may still be far from solving the curious problem of the origin of these singular bodies we 

 are, nevertheless, certain that a minute observation of all the facts connected with the subject affords the only rational 

 promise of our ultimately attaining so desirable an object. 



In giving a description of the Virginia aerolite I shall in the first place consider the specimen before me in relation 

 to its compound character, or, so to speak, as a rock; and afterwards I shall attempt to point out the nature of the indi- 

 vidual substances of which it is composed. 



The weight of the fragment is a little short of 2 pounds, which is about half that, as we are informed, of the mass 

 from which it was detached. That portion of the external surface which remains in the specimen indicates that the 

 entire piece was less oval in its figure than is usual in these stones. Besides this difference in general shape the surface 

 exhibits hollow and circular cavities, some of which are half an inch in diameter and about the same in depth; and is 

 invested with the black coating which always accompanies such bodies, although this is interrupted in a few places 

 and nowhere appears to have resulted from a very perfect fusion. 



Its interior at first glance reminds one forcibly of certain volcanic rocks. Its color is a bluish ash-gray, interspersed 

 with a sprinkling of white, and here and there with specks of brownish rust. It contains numerous ovoidal, irregular- 

 shaped cavities, varying in size from one-tenth to half an inch in diameter, which are lined in many instances with 

 brilliant metallic crystals. Its compound character becomes sufficiently obvious on bringing it near the eye, when it 

 appears to be composed principally of a bluish-gray substance, in globular masses, from the size of a mustard seed to that 

 of a pea, and a white loosely cohering mineral, the former in much the largest proportion. After these, on closer inspec- 

 tion, are visible, minute-hook shaped, and sometimes slightly flattened globular masses of a metallic nature which are 

 often partially coated by rust, and minute steel-gray grains and crystals, which for the most part occupy the cavities 

 before mentioned, and are sometimes arranged so as to resemble the characters used in the eastern languages. Besides 

 these, by the aid of a microscope, we discover occasionally a greenish transparent laminated substance, and more 

 rarely a honey-yellow mineral in minute grains. 



In comparing it in its general aspect with such meteoric specimens as the cabinet of this college embraces, we observe 

 in it a considerable resemblance to the Weston aerolites. Like these, the two substances of which it is chiefly composed 

 are in masses sufficiently large to appear quite distinct to the naked eye, although from the description already given 

 it will be perceived that it differs considerably even from them by its numerous cavities and their crystallized contents. 

 It differs very essentially from the Maryland stones which are almost wholly made up of a white feldspathic substance, 

 as well as from those of 1' Aigle and Stannem, the former of which being quite compact and homogeneous, and the latter 

 abounding mostly in albite. 



The firmness of the Virginian stone is superior to that of either of those above mentioned except perhaps those of 

 1' Aigle, it requiring a pretty smart blow of the hammer to produce a fracture and the small masses refuse to separate 

 by the mere strength of the fingers. Its specific gravity, as determined in two fragments, one weighing 82.3 grams and 

 the other 38.5, was 3.29 and 3.31. 



After these observations upon the general character of the specimen under examination I proceed to the separate 

 description of the minerals it contains. 



