METEORITE. 



137 



Ustsswlis t*^*g* noies, which proceeded from the centre of the 

 - department, were more or less audible within a circle 

 of several leagues. The resemblance and volume of 

 the stone* which were precipitated to the ground, on 

 the ceMation of the explosions, appear to have been 

 lerable. Some were sent to the Prefect, who 

 transmitted them to the minister of the interior, others 

 were distributed among the curious, while many were 

 picked up by the peasants, and venerated as reliques. 

 Two are mentioned as weighing eighteen pounds each. 

 It should seem that they were not found warm at the 

 moment of their fall ; that the heaviest sunk into a 

 compact soil to the depth of eight or nine inches, and 

 that one of them rebounded three or four feet from the 

 ground. It is added, that they fell obliquely, making 

 an angle of from 65 to 70 degrees with the horizontal 

 line, and that they diverged in their fall, affecting va- 

 rious directions in the different communes in which 

 they fell. " All the specimen* of these stones which I 

 saw," observes the reporter, " present no character to 

 the eye which can make them be distinguished from 

 those which 1 have hitherto had occasion to examine, 

 or which I have in my cabinet : they merely seemed 

 to be more friable and more porous than the latter." 

 His account of the white cloud, too, which accompa- 

 nied the meteor, correspond* with those of such as have 

 than one* been observed to attend similar ap- 



St. L*w. July 3, 1814. A great shower of ashes in the river 



rtnce. St. Lawrence. I'hii. Mag. 



November 5, 1814. "A singular phenomenon," 

 ays a native philosopher of the spot, " has occurred in 



p . the Doab. I have heard the facts related by various 

 persons, who all concur in the same account. The cir- 

 cumstance* arc as follow : On the 5th of November, be- 

 ing Saturday, while half a watch of the day still re- 

 mained. (i. e. half past four o'clock P. M.) there was 

 first of all heard a dreadful peal of thunder, and then 

 stones rained down in sight of the inhabitants of the 

 country, each stone being IS or 15 seer* in weight. 

 In the first place, wheresoever they fell a great dust 

 rose from the ground ; and, after the dust subsided, a 

 heap of dust was formed, and in that dust were found 

 the stone*, a piece of one of which i* sent herewith. 



" In the district of Lank seven stones were found ; 

 in the district of Bah wen, dependant on Bt-zu-n Sumroo, 

 four ; in the dutrict of ( hal, belonging to the pergun. 

 nah of Sbawlif, five ; at Kabout, belonging to the per- 

 gun i*h ot'Shawlif, five. In all "mrtftn ktone* were 

 found." I'htL Mag. BMioth. Dritam. 



South SM. About the end of September, 1815, the South Sea 

 was covered to a great extent with dust, supposed to 

 have proceeded from the fall of a meteor. Pkit. Mag. 



October S, 1H15. At half-past eight o'clock, in the 

 morning the sky being clear and serene, with a gentle 

 easterly wind, there wa heard a rumbling noie like the 

 discharge of musketry and artillery. This noise, which 

 apparently proceeded from the north-east, and from a 

 grey cloud of an indeterminate form, which hung over 

 the horizon, had lasted a few minutes, when a man at 



QhMdfnj- work in a vineyard, at some distance from Chassigny, 

 a village situated about four league* to the south-east of 

 Langres, and who had his eye fixed on the cloud, bear- 

 ing a whistling like that of a cannon ball, saw an opaque 

 body fall at a few paces from him, and which emitted a 

 dense smoke. On .uniting to the -pot, he perceived a 

 deep bole in the ground, .it!i fr^nienu of a peculiar 



sort of stone scattered aronnd it. Having picked up Meteorite. 

 one of the pieces, he found it as hot as it' it had been " V" 1 "' 

 long exposed to the ardent rays of the sun. In conse- 

 quence of his having brought it into the village, seve- 

 ral of the inhabitants went out and collected specimens. 

 Next day, Dr. Pistollet, physician at Langres, visited 

 Chassigny, and having obtained one of the fragments, 

 was struck with its resemblance to a meteorite which 

 had been sent to him from Germany. He was, there- 

 fore, induced to repair to the spot, and collected about 

 sixty small pieces, some of which were soft and wet, 

 and easily crumbled in the hand ; but all seemed to 

 have belonged to one mass. In some of them the ex- 

 ternal crust was of a deep black, and in others of a 

 glossy chesnut-brown. On the blackest crusts eleva- 

 tions or swellings were observed, like the produce of 

 ebullition suddenly arrested. Internally, these speci- 

 mens were grey-white, with a light greenish tint, gra- 

 nular, sufficiently soft to be scratched with a knife, 

 composed of small brilliant and raised crystalline la- 

 mina-, and of a multitude of minute black ferruginous 

 points, heavy, not magnetic, and interspersed with dis- 

 tant small round pores. 



In this instance, Vauquelin's analysis afforded, 



Silica 3390 



Oxidated iron ... 31 



Magnesia .... 88 



Chrome 2 



98.90 



The Chasiigny stones, therefore, are remarkable fur 

 their crystalline texture, for their want of nickel and 

 sulphur, and for their more than ordinary proportions 

 of magnesia and chrome. 



Aprd 15, 18ltj. Coloured snow again fell in Italy, Italy. 

 particularly on Tonal and other mountains. It was of 

 a brick red, and led an earthy powder very light and 

 impalpable, unctuous to the touch, of an argillaceous 

 odour, and sub-acid, saline, and astringent taste. Twen- 

 ty six grains, when analysed, gave the following re- 

 sults: 



Sflex 8 



Iron 5 



Alumine 3 



Lime 1 



Carbonic acid 5 



Sulphur .25 



Empyreumatic oil ... 8 



Carbon 2 



Water . . 



2.2.5 



A stone fell at Glastonbury, in Somersetshire. GUtton- 

 Phil, Mag. buiy. 



May Sand 3, 1817. There is reason to believe that 

 masses of stone fell into the Baltic, because after the Baltic. 

 great meteor f Gottenburgh, a stream of fire was ob- 

 served from Odensee to descend rapidly into the sea, in 

 the south-east. Ckladnt. 



November 3, 1817. According to the French news- Paris, 

 papers, a meteor of considerable size ft II, in the in.., n- 

 ing, in the Rue dc Richelieu, Paris, descending with 

 so much force as to displace a part of the pave- 

 ment, and to sink to some depth in the earth. It 

 was accompanied by a sulphureous smell, and seemed to 

 have been recently in a state of ignition or combustion. 



u 



VOL. 1IT. FABT 1, 



The BogalsMT weighs Ut sod 2 < 



