78 REPORT— 1873. 



seen by Mr. Wood at Birmingham was deep blue ; its nucleus disappeared 

 without apparent expansion or explosion, and left a very slight, evanescent 

 streak upon its course. The meteor observed by Mr. Lowe at Beestou was 

 distinctly red ; it burst with a flash, and left a very enduring streak of red 

 points upon its course. With these essential differences of character (and 

 even with the short interval of only one minute between the times of their 

 observations), the identity of the meteor seen at Beeston with that observed 

 by himself is regarded by Mr. Wood as not sufficiently established, or as 

 being at least open to question, in the absence of further observation. The 

 recorded positions of the meteors' paths are, moreover, so close to each other, 

 that although they present a small displacement in the right direction to be 

 produced by the great distance (about 45 miles) between the observers' places 

 at Beeston and Birmingham, yet the unusual height of 360 miles above the 

 earth at first appearance, and of 240 miles at disappearance, which their 

 comparison together would suppose, must be regarded as requiring a proof 

 from further observations, of which none have hitherto been received by the 

 Committee. 



III. Aerolites. 



The following accounts of two aerolites which feU last year are extracted 

 from the scientific journals in which their descriptions have recently ap- 

 peared. 



1. Searsmont, Maine, U.S., 1871, May 21, S** a.m. (local time). — Professor 

 Shephard, of Amherst CoUege, Massachusetts, has published some particulars 

 respecting the meteoric stone which fell at Searsmont, Maine, U.S., on May 

 21st. About 8 A.M. there was heard an explosion, like the report of a heavy 

 gun, followed by a rushing sou^nd resembling the escape of steam from a 

 boiler. The stone fell in a field, and a lady who was in a house close by 

 saw the earth scattered in all directions as it entered the ground. The hole 

 which it made was soon found, and on digging down the fragments were 

 found stiU quite hot, the outside surfaces showing plainly the effects of 

 melting heat. The largest piece weighed two pounds, and the fragments 

 altogether twelve pounds. They emitted an odour like that of flints when 

 rubbed violently together. The hole made by the falling body was two feet 

 in depth, the soil being a hard coarse gravel ; but the fracture of the stone 

 was obviously occasioned by its striking against three large pebbles, each 

 about four pounds in weight. Professor Shephard obtained and examined 

 the largest fragTuent of the aerolite. FnUy one half of its surface was coated 

 with the original crust, and the shape would seem to denote that the perfect 

 mass had been of an oval, subconical figure with a flattish base, so as on the 

 whole to have approached the shape of the famous DuraUa stone now in the 

 British Museum. Among the constituent elements were found meteoric iron, 

 peroxide of iron, chladnite, troilite, together with a single blackish mass 

 which Professor Shephard considered was in all probability a plumbaginous 

 aggregate. The following notice of its composition has also recently ap- 

 peared : — 



. . " This meteoric stone has been examined by Dr. Lawrence Smith (SiUiman's 

 /American Journal of Science,' September 1871, p. 200). He finds it resemble 

 very closely the Mauerkirchen stone that feU in 1768, the crusts correspond- 

 ing quite closely both in thickness and appearance; the Mauerkirchen stone, 

 ■however, has not well-marked globules like that of Searsmont, and in this 

 respect it corresponds more nearly to the Aussun aerolite. Its specific gravity 

 was 3-701, and its composition is— 



