N. S. Maskelyne on the fall of Butsura. 69 
For the narrative of the cigcumstances accompanying the fall 
of these aerolites, I am indebted partly to Mr. Atkinson, the 
Secretary of the Asiatic Society, partly to my friend Dr. Oldham, 
the Director of the Indian Geological Survey. 
The fall of the Qutahar Bazar and Chireya specimens was 
heralded by a report from out of a cloudless sky with a sound 
like that of ordnance, succeeded by several successive peals of 
seeming thunder. An appearance as of smoke was seen above 
the ground where they fell. One stone penetrated the soil for 
a cubit (=18 inches); the other did so to half that depth. 
The two small fragments from Bulloah were accompanied by 
phenomena well substantiated by a near eye-witness. A native 
was taking his cattle to the water, when he was startled by three 
very loud reports, and saw in the air on high “a light” (a 
luminous body), which fell to the ground within 200 yards of 
him. Here too the sky was serene, and the weather fiercely 
hot, but there was a very small cloud, out of which this witness 
stated the report and the luminous body to have come. “ First,” 
he adds, ‘there was the loud report, and about the same time I 
saw the light like a flame; then the stone fell, and in falling 
made a great noise, and after it fell the sand was taken up high 
into the air.” He went to the spot whence the sand had been 
. Oldham, on secsdiny these most interesting aerolites to 
England, accompanied them by remarkable observations of his 
