186 C.U. Shepard—Estherville Meteorite. 
Art. XXIX.—On the Estherville, Emmet County. Iowa, Meteorite 
of May 10th, 1879; by CHARL PHAM SHEPARD, Emeritus 
Professor of Natural History in Amherst College. 
For the circumstances attending this third fall of aerolites in 
the State of lowa since the year 1847, I am indebted to a notice 
cadet? in the Chicago Times by Mr. 8. E. Bemis, and to 
etters from Mr. Howard Graves and Mr. Henry Barber of Es- 
therville.* 
The fall occurred at 5 Pp. M. on the 10th of May, attended by 
a terrible explosion, resembling the discharge of a cannon, mi 
louder. It seemed to proceed from a region high up in mid- 
Charles Ega, looking in the direction of the report, could see 
nothing on account of the sun’s rays; but following with his 
eye the direction of the roaring sound that succeeded, he saw 
dirt thrown high into the air at the edge of a ravine, one hun- 
dred rods northeast of where he was standing. At a like dis- 
tance, still farther away in the same direction, a similar disturb- 
ance of the ground was seen by Mr. Barber. Another witness, 
Mr. S. W. Brown, living three-quarters of a mile distant, being 
in the edge of a wood, and having his eyes directed upward at 
the moment for the inspection of some oak trees, saw a red 
streak in the heavens; and while looking at it, the explosion 
took place. It appeared to him, that the meteor was passing 
from west to east; and that when it burst, there was a cloud at 
the head of the red streak, which darted out of it like smoke 
from a cannon’s mouth, and then expanded in every direction. 
On examining the ravine where a body was seen to strike, a 
hole in the ground was discovered, twelve feet in diameter and 
six indepth. It was filled with water. Within this hole, at a 
depth of fourteen feet below the general surface of the ground, 
the large mass, weighing four hundred and thirty-one pounds, 
was found. It had penetrated a stratum of blue clay to the 
depth of six feet, before its progress had been arrested. The 
mass measured twenty-seven inches in length, by twenty-two 
and three-quarters in breadth, and fifteen in thickness. Its 
urtace is described as “fearfully rough,” with ragged projec- 
tions of metal. From one of these a portion was detached, and 
1aped into a finger-ring. After much searching, there have 
* A short notice of this meteorite’s fall, by Professor §. F. Peckham, is given 
on page 77 of this volume.—Eps. 
