200 Miscellanies. 



pound shot, of quicksilvery appearance, then fell for a few seconds 

 towards the north and vanished. No report was heard by Mr. Men- 

 zies and Mr. Thompson, (a sufficient proof of the great distance,) for 

 on reaching the Bokkeveld, almost one hundred miles, they ascer- 

 tained that the meteor had exploded and stones fallen there about the 

 time they witnessed the phenomenon. 



The Rev. Mr. Zahn, of Tubogh, sent in to Mr. Watermeyer a stone 

 broken by the fall into two pieces, the same stone that was analyzed 

 by Mr. Faraday ; it weighed twenty seven ounces — another weighed 

 four pounds two ounces avoirdupois. 



Several stones fell on the place of Rudolph Van Heerden, one of 

 which was broken to pieces by falling on the hard road ; another 

 sunk a few inches into the ground on a ploughed field, and a third 

 penetrated several feet in a moist place near the water. The first 

 stone named above, fell at an hour's distance (five to six miles) from 

 the others ; and in the same direction in which the agitation was per- 

 ceptible, i. e. from northwest to southeast, more stones were found. 

 Mr. Zahn states that he had one piece too large to be carried on horse- 

 back. 



Dr. Truter, civil commissioner of Worcester, at the time of the 

 fall observed the windows of his office to shake as if by an earth- 

 quake, and the mercury in his barometer was found to be depressed 

 to the lowest point of its range throughout the year. Dr. Truter 

 sent in several specimens of the meteorite seen to fall by the Hotten- 

 tot Kieviet. 



Attention was first excited by a violent explosion, followed by a 

 rumbling noise, like that from heavy wagons passing over stony 

 ground ; when, on looking up, they saw a blue stream of smoke, as 

 if from fired gunpowder, passing over from S. W. to N. E. ; at the 

 same instant the son of Van Heerden saw something fall, which he 

 picked up; and another stone, which plunged into a marsh about a 

 mile off, was afterwards discovered. 



A servant of Priter du Tort, saw a stone fall in the brush-wood, a 

 mile below the garden ; he ran to the place and brought it to his mas- 

 ter. All assert that the sky was clear and calm, and that the stones 

 were so hot that they could not be taken up. 



All the instances cited above, are those of stones that were seen to 

 fall. 



The people being excited, farther search was made, and many other 

 pieces were discovered within a zone of one mile broad and sixteen 

 miles long, only a small portion of which is cultivated, and the re- 

 mainder is covered with brush-wood as on waste land, and therefore 

 it is highly probable that many other pieces have escaped observation ; 



