368 report — 1878. 



1877, October 13th, about 2 p.m. — Soko-Banja, N.E. of Alexinatz, Servia.* 

 [Long. 20° 53' E. of Greenwich ; Lat. 43° 38' N.] 



Doll's paper, which appears in the ' Transactions of the Austrian 

 Geological Society,' contains two descriptions of the fall of meteorites at 

 Soko-Banja, drawn from two different sources. The first, taken from the 

 Servian weekly literary journal, ' Javor,' published at Neusatz, is written 

 by an eye-witness of the occurrence, who states that the 13th October 

 was fine, and the sky clear, and that about two in the afternoon a noise as 

 of thunder was heard resembling batteries of cannon firing briskly. The 

 sound was followed by a violent concussion of the air, and then a number 

 of aerolites were strewn over the adjacent region. One, weighing 10 

 okas (22^ Austrian pounds), fell in front of a house in Soko-Banja, and 

 was driven deep into the earth ; a second, which touched the ground at 

 Scherbanowaz, near the Rtanj Berg, weighed 30 okas (G7^ Austrian 

 pounds), and is the largest mass which was collected. The peasants at 

 Rtanj state that one which fell in that locality was of the size of a sack 

 of flour, and that by striking against the rocky surface it was dashed to 

 fragments. From the second and later report, provided by Ritter von 

 Stefanowitsch, of an inquiry instituted by some scientific men from 

 Belgrade, it appears that two explosions, like salvoes of artillery, were 

 heard, accompanied by a brilliant display of light such as attends the 

 bursting of shells. A dense black smoke was observed at a considerable 

 altitude, which broke up into three columns, and gradually changed to a 

 white smoke. The noise lasted for some time, and then the sound re- 

 sembled the firing of musketry. The air appeared to be shaken. Soon 

 after the explosion commenced a number of meteorites fell to the ground 

 over an area a mile and a half in length and half a mile in breadth. 

 The following masses have been collected : — 



1. One, weighing 23 okas, fell in the village Scherbanowaz, and 

 penetrated the soil to the depth of four feet. (This is the one mentioned 

 in • Javor.') 



2. One, weighing 15 okas, fell near the vineyard at Soko-Banja, and 

 reached a depth of three feet. This appears not to be the mass referred 

 to in ' Javor.' 



3. Two stones found at Blandija. 



4. A fragment, weighing 2 okas, was found at Prevalac. 



5. A meteorite of small size fell at Gradic (Prevalac and Gradic are 

 hamlets, west of and close to Soko-Banja). 



6. A number of pieces of various sizes fell at Dugopolje, and several 

 very small stones are reported to have fallen on the Djeviza Planina. 



One fragment, 2 okas in weight, fell on a pear tree, and then de- 

 scended to the ground ; a man who was under the tree took it in his 

 hands, and received the impression that the mass was still warm. 



The meteorites were sent to the Natural History Museum at Belgrade. 

 Doll's paper contains two little maps indicating the area over which the 

 stones were strewn. He describes a small specimen which came into his 

 possession : the matrix is bluish grey and compact, enclosing spherules 

 which vary in size from that of a millet-seed to that of a hare-shot, and 

 which project from the fractured surface. But little nickel-iron or 



* E. Doll, 'Verhandl. der K.K. Geolog. Reiclisanstalt,' 1877, No. 16, 283. 

 S. M. Losanitch, ' Berichte der deutschen chemischen Gesellschaft,' 1878, xi, 96. 



