J. L. Smith—Description of Meteoric Stones. 225 
At four o’clock P. M., on the 28d of January, 1877, a brilliant 
bolide was seen traversing Monroe county, Indiana, in a south- 
easterly direction, about thirty-five degrees above the horizon. 
The same bolide was observed by a number of persons in Deca- 
tur county, of the same State, lat. 39° 27’, long. 85° 28’, and 
it disappeared just as it seemed to touch the earth, apparently 
not more than a quarter of a mile distant. As will be seen, it 
fell about sixty miles distant from these places. It seemed to 
fall almost perpendicularly toward the earth’s surface. I can- 
not learn that it was seen by any one in the State of Obio, but 
Suppose that it was. In the State of Kentucky it was seen 
over a considerable territory. The phenomena culminated in 
the usual noises heard in the heavens accompanying the 
approach of these bodies, and much consternation was produced 
among the inhabitants of the surrounding country. Fortu- 
nately one of the observers, an intelligent farmer (Mr. Crag- 
myle), heard a solid body strike the ground; he walked imme- 
diately to the spot, and dug the stone from a depth of thirteen 
inches, to which extent it had penetrated the ground, A few 
days after its fall and before it had become generally known, 
rofessor Kirkwood wrote me a letter, stating what observa- 
tions had been made in Indiana, and telling me to look out for 
a meteoric fall somewhere about the region where the stone did 
fall. I had, however, made the observations and secured the 
meteorite, before his letter arrived, but the stone had not yet 
been forwarded to me. 
Character of the Stone.—It is wedge-shaped, with one portion 
of it very extensively and regularly pitted, while the rest is 
comparatively smooth. The crust is dull black, and, as it 
reached me, it was as perfect as when it fell. There was a fresh 
broken spot of two or three square centimeters, which, to a cas- 
ual observer, would appear to have been made after the fall; 
n close examination, I saw that it had been made prior 
to the fall, and before the melted matter of the surface had 
entirely cooled, for a few small specks of this matter have been 
sprinkled on this broken surface, to which it firmly adheres, 
could not have arisen from any fusion of that surface, which is 
too fresh and unaltered to have been heated to any high degree. 
The fracture was produced by the same cause that produced 
the pitting.* 
The weight of the stone is six kilograms. It is of the harder 
brecciated yariety, and when broken presents a mottled surface, 
identical with that of the Parnallee stone, which it resembles 
also in every other particular, the very,pale yellow round spots, 
* This is clearly and fully set forth by Professor Maskelyne, in the Phil. Mag., 
for August, 1876. 
