Aerolite of Maryland. 353 



Statement of W. D. Harrison, Esq. 



On the 10th of February; 1G25, between the hours of 12 

 and 1 o'clock, as nearly as recollected, 1 heard an explosion, 

 as 1 supposed, of a cannon, but somewhat sharper. I im- 

 nnediately advanced with a quick step about twenty paces, 

 when my attention was arrested by a buzzing noise, resem- 

 bling that of a humming bee, which increased to a much 

 louder sound, something like a spinning-wheel, or a chimney 

 on fire, and seemed directly over my head; and in a short 

 time I heard something fall. The time which elapsed from 

 my first hearing the explosion, to the falling, might have been 

 fifteen seconds. I then went with some of my servants to 

 find where it had fallen, but did not at first succeed ; (though, 

 as I afterwards found I had got as near as 30 yards to the 

 spot,) however, after a short interval the place was found by 

 my cook, who had, (in the presence of a respectable white 

 woman.) dug down to it before I got there, and a stone was 

 discovered from twenty-two to twenty-four inches under the 

 surface, and which, after being washed, weighed sixteen 

 pounds — and which was no doubt the one which I had heard 

 fall, as the mud was thrown in different directions from thir- 

 teen to sixteen steps. The day was perfectly clear, a little 

 snow was then on the earth in some places which had fallen 

 the night previous. The stone when taken up had a strong 

 sulphureous smell, and there were black streaks in the clay 

 which appeared marked by the descent of the stone. I have 

 conversed with gentlemen in different directions, some of 

 them from 18 to 20 miles distant, who heard the noise, (not 

 the explosion.) They inform me that it appeared directly 

 over their heads. There was no fire-ball seen by me or 

 others that I have heard. There was but one report, and 

 but one stone fell, to my knowledge, and there was no pecu- 

 liar smell in the air. It fell on my plantation, within two 

 hundred and fifty yards of my house, and within one hundred 

 of the habitation of my negroes. 



I have given this statement to Dr. Carver, at his request, 

 and which is as full as I could give at this distant day, from 

 having thought but little of it since. Given this 28th day of 

 April, eighteen hundred and twenty-five. 



W. D. HARRISON, 

 Surveyor of the port of Nanjemoy, Md 



Vol. IX, -No. 2. 45 



