160 PROCEEDINGS OF THE BOSTON MEETING 



Tatesville and 58 miles northwest from Cumberland Falls, heard the sounds 

 three minutes later. Professor Downing, of the Department of Astronomy, 

 University of Kentucky, at Lexington, Kentucky, heard the sounds at 12.35, 

 and immediately after felt the building tremble. Lexington is 85 miles dis- 

 tant from Cumberland Falls. 



All the pieces recovered to date fell at Sawyer Post-OflBce, in McCreary 

 County, longitude 84 degrees 20 minutes, latitude 36 degrees 53 minutes. 

 They number 50 in all, ranging in size from less than an ounce up to 5^ 

 pounds. The total weight is about 52 pounds. It is the opinion of Mr. W. H. 

 Morgan, postmaster at Sawyer, through whom all the pieces were obtained, 

 that the main mass went on farther north. In this the writer concurs, and 

 he predicts that if this main mass is ever found, which is very unlikely, on 

 account of the ruggedness and unsettled condition of the country, it will be in 

 that portion of Pulaski County a little to the north of the Cumberland River 

 and a short distance below the mouth of the Rockcastle River. Cumberland 

 Falls is close to Sawyer Post-Office. On account of its being a well known 

 place, it is proposed as a proper designation for this meteoric fall. 



Presented from notes. 



CUMBERLAND FALLS, KENTUCKY, METEORITE 

 BY GEORGE P. MERRILL 



(A'bstract) 



The paper refers but briefly to the phenomena of the fall, which have been 

 described suflaciently by Prof. A. M. Miller, and dwells particularly on the com- 

 position and structure of the stone, which is a breccia composed of fragments 

 of a coarse, light gray enstatite mingled with those of a dark gray chondritic 

 material. The coarseness of crystallization of the original stone and the 

 present structural peculiarities are accounted for on the supposition that the 

 detrital matter, derived from the disintegration of previously consolidated 

 rock-masses of at least two distinct types, accumulated on the surface Mke an 

 ordinary terrestrial volcanic tuff or breccia. Subsequently the beds were 

 deeply buried, and through crustal movement compressed into their present 

 condition. This supposition carries with it the supposition that this meteorite 

 is but a spawl from a very much larger mass, one of sufficient size to have 

 been subject to such crustal movements as are incidental to mountain-making 

 and which find their terrestrial counterpart only in regions of great disturb- 

 ance, as in our southern Appalachians. How large such a mass should be it is 

 impossible to say. That it must have been of planetary dimensions is thought 

 to be a safe assumption. In fact, that the fragments are direct evidence of 

 the destruction of some preexisting planet is regarded as a legitimate con- 

 clusion. 



Presented without manuscript, with the aid of lantern-slide illustra- 

 tions. 



Discussed by F. E. Yan Horn. 



