382 MEMOIRS NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES, VOL. XIII. 



The specific gravity of a fragment whose surface was one-third crust is 3.65. It may be added in conclusion that 

 the inspection of this rather peculiar stone strongly suggests the idea that the pisiform globules were produced by the 

 sudden fusion of what was originally a chladnitic material (similar to the Bishopville stone), amid particles of chamasite 

 attended by access of oxygen, whereby the silicate of magnesia became converted into the more fusible double silicate 

 of magnesia and iron. 



Kirkwood * described the meteor as follows: 



On Thursday evening, December 21, 1876, about seventeen minutes before 9 o'clock, Bloomington time, a meteor 

 of extraordinary magnitude passed over the States of Kansas, Missouri, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and 

 New York. I have received communications descriptive of the phenomena from Prof. F. W. Bardwell, of Lawrence, 

 and Rev. J. L. Gay, of Parsons, Kansas; Prof. Joseph Ficklin, Columbia, Missouri; Prof. S. W. Burnham, Chicago, 

 Illinois; Profs. D. E. Hunter, Brookston, and J. B. Roberts, Indianapolis, Indiana; Prof. Samuel J. Kirkwood, 

 Wooster, Ohio; and others in the different States over which the meteor passed. At Bloomington, Indiana, it was 

 observed by Profs. T. A. Wylie, D. D., H. B. Boisen, and C. F. McNutt; also by Rev. James Garrison, Messrs. D. 0. 

 Spencer, J. Graham, and many others. A discussion of the observations furnished by the correspondents named gives 

 the following as the meteor's track through the atmosphere. 



The body when first visible was about 70 or 75 miles above the earth's surface, at a point southwest from Emporia, 

 Kansas, and not far from the southern border of the State. It passed Emporia a few degrees southeast of the zenith, 

 entered Missouri near the southwest corner of Jackson County; passed very nearly over the towns of Lexington, Keytes- 

 ville, and Oakdale, Missouri; Quincy, Lewiston, Peoria, and Lorain, Illinois; Winamac, Rochester, and Auburn, 

 Indiana; Bryan and Toledo, Ohio; crossed Lake Erie to a point a few miles south of Erie, Pennsylvania, and disappeared 

 over southwestern New York. This track is not represented by a straight line drawn on the map, but by one somewhat 

 curved toward the north or northwest. Its length is between 1,000 and 1,100 miles, one of the longest meteoric tracks 

 on record. The body passed the meridian of Bloomington, Indiana, 131 miles north of the city, and its apparent 

 elevation as determined by Prof. T. A. Wylie, was 15. This, taking into account the curvature of the meridian, 

 gives about 38 miles as the altitude of the meteor when over the western part of Fulton County, Indiana. Data fur- 

 nished by Prof. Samuel J. Kirkwood, of Wooster, Ohio, show the height when over Lake Erie, nearly directly north 

 of that city, to have been 29 miles. The estimated altitudes at other points of the track are less satisfactory. 



Some observers in Missouri report an explosion of the meteor when passing over the central part of the State. At 

 Bloomington, Indiana, Prof. n. B. Boisen, who saw the meteor when due west and watched it till it disappeared near 

 the eastern horizon, observed it separate into several parts when nearly northwest, or in the direction of Peoria, Illinois. 

 Rev. James Garrison, who resides 1 mile south of Bloomington, noticed by his clock tie time of the meteor's disappear- 

 ance and also that of the subsequent rumbling sound, together with the violent jarring of his house. The interval was 

 15 minutes, indicating a distance of 185 miles. The sound and jar of the explosion were heard and felt by hundreds 

 throughout Monroe County, and by many ascribed to an earthquake. In regard to the sounds following the meteor's 

 passage through the atmosphere, the Monthly Weather Review for December, 1876, says: "No reliable accounts speak 

 of any noise heard during the visibility of the meteor, but in from two to five minutes after its passage a shock resem- 

 bling thunder was heard, which, in the majority of cases, was described as tremendous, shaking the ground and the 

 houses, and was especially alarming to those who, on account of the prevailing cloudiness, were unable to see the pre- 

 ceding meteor. The uniform character of the sound heard at all the stations shows that it was not due to any violent 

 explosion (properly so-called), but was a peculiar acoustic phenomenon, depending on the fact that that portion of the 

 line described by the meteor when nearest to any observer, became, as it were, instantaneously along a length of several 

 miles, the origin of a series of simultaneous sounds which, although in themselves comparatively feeble, were concen- 

 trated into a violent sound when they reached the observer's ear." The view here expressed is not sustained by the 

 observations in Monroe and the adjacent counties, as a sound from the nearest point of the meteor's track would have 

 reached Bloomington, if at all, in 10 or 11 minutes. 



When crossing Indiana the principal fireball was followed by a train or group of smaller meteors, many of which 

 were superior in apparent magnitude to Venus or Jupiter. The breadth or apparent diameter of this cluster, as seen 

 from Bloomington, was 3 degrees, and its length at least 20 degrees. Its true diameter was, therefore, 5 miles, and its 

 length about 4 miles. These smaller meteors were chiefly the results of the explosions over central Illinois. A final 

 disruption occurred over Erie County, Pennsylvania, several minor explosions having taken place during the passage 

 over Indiana and Ohio. 



A fragment of the meteorite fell on the farm of Mr. Andrew J. Morris, 3 miles northwest of Rochester, Fulton 

 County, Indiana. Mr. M., on hearing the meteoric explosion, had left his house, when he noticed a heavy body strike 

 the earth at no great distance. Designating the spot as nearly as he could by a mark in the snow (which was six inches 

 deep), he returned in the morning and soon found where the meteorite had struck in the snow, rebounded, and again 

 fallen close by. The whole fragment weighed about 12 ounces. A part of it was secured by the writer and forwarded 

 to Prof. Chas. Upham Shepard, of Amherst College, Massachusetts. A fragment was also obtained by Mr. W. A. Roeb- 

 ling, of New York, and a third was sent by Prof. E. T. Cox to Dr. J. Lawrence Smith, of Louisville. No analysis, how- 

 ever, has yet been published. The body is peculiar in its structure, being pisolitic and remarkably friable. The fact 

 that other portions of the mass have not been discovered may perhaps be owing to its complete disintegration. 



