. 
| 
Silliman and Kingsley on the Weston Meteor of 1807. 7 
stone and earth to the distance of 50 and 100 feet. Had there 
n no meteor, no explosions, and no witnesses of the light and 
shock, it would have been impossible for any person contempla~ 
ting the scene to doubt, that a large and heavy body had really 
fallen from the skies with tremendous momentum. 
rom the best information which we could obtain of the 
quantity of fragments of this last stone, compared with its 
specific gravity, we concluded that its weight could not have 
fallen much short of 200 pounds. All the stones, when first 
found, were friable, being easily broken between the fingers ; 
this was especially the case, where they had been buried in the 
moist earth ; but by exposure to the air, they gradually har- 
ene 
the prepared fish skin, or shagreen. It gives sparks with the 
steel. There are certain portions of the stone covered with the 
