C. U. Shepard on a Shooting Meteor from S. Carolina. 275 
any other character than that of mere hints, intended to awaken 
regard to a fuller investigation of analogous cases, as they may 
from time to time present themselves. 
It was hot far from the month of August, 1834, that the 
newspapers announced the fall of a blazing meteor in the night, 
in the town of Norwich, Conn. Its descent was unaccompa- 
nied by any report, and the mass of matter in its course, came 
near falling upon the roof of a house, missing it only by the 
space of about two feet, and nearly burying itself in the rather 
soft earth of the door-yard. The phenomenon occasioned much 
fright to the occupants of the house, who were only females. 
It was seen however, by others. The mass of matter occupying 
the cavity was of a flattened form, and nearly as large over as 
aman’s head. It had tlie appearance (in the words of a neigh- 
bor who saw it and who described it to mea few weeks after) 
of a mass of earth, stuck together by the infiltration of tarry 
matter, And such he took it to be, supposing that some mis- 
chievous persons had prepared a fire-ball, and projected it on 
fire into the air, with the intention of alarming the inmates of 
the house. I was shown the cavity said to have been pro- 
duced by the ball; but the specimen had been given to a medi- 
cal student, who had sent it to bis preceptor, residing in or near 
Albany, N.Y, The circumstances were on the w ole so dis- 
Couraging to the idea of its being a genuine meteorite, that I 
ve the subject no further consideration. It may not 
- te, to recover further information respecting its character. 
On the evening of the 23d of April, 1855, at Ochtertyre House, 
Crieff, in Perthshire (Scotland), a young woman saw from the 
third story, a shooting star or meteorite, falling with a brilliant 
It struck the gravel walk near to the house. She in- 
stantly called two other females, “ who saw as it were, a brig t 
object on the gravel, like the sun shining on a large diamond. 
wo of them ran out of the house and round a court-yard to 
Pe: spo 
Spection of one of the specimens, and was satisfied that a correct 
_ §ueral view had been taken of their character. Nevertheless, as 
