Prof. Maskelyne and Dr. Lang's Miner alogical Notes. 443 

 13. Nellore. 



This fine mass, which fell at Yatoor, Nellore, lat. 14° 18', 

 long. 79° 46', at half-past 4 p.m. on January 23, 1852, was pre- 

 sented to the Museum by His Excellency Sir William Denison, 

 K.C.B., Governor of Madras. The history of its fall is recorded 

 in the following deposition : — 



"Deposition of Chella Vencataramoodoo, an inhabitant of 

 Yatoor in the Talook of Toomalatalpoor, dated the 25th of 

 January, 1852. 



" Q. — The circumstance of a sound being heard and a ball 

 falling on the lands of Yatoor Village was communicated by the 

 village moonsiff. State where you were then, whence and how 

 the ball fell, and all you know about it. 



"A. — At about half-past 4 o'clock p.m. the day before yester- 

 day, I and Cherukoor Soobadoo were grazing cattle near the 

 ChoutaVagoo, south of Yatoor ; and just about five or six ghadies, 

 before it was dark, a noise as of the firing of a musket was first 

 heard, and as we were looking towards the west we heard a rum- 

 bling noise for a moment, and espied at the distance of about forty 

 yards dust rising to the height of a man. We three j:hen went 

 to the spot, and found a hole made in the ground 2 spans deep 

 and 2 spans wide, and a white stone in it ; and as it was not 

 possible to take it out, we took a small piece of that stone that 

 was on the ground and informed the circumstance to the village 

 moonsiff, who went to the spot yesterday morning and dug up 

 the stone. The soil of the place where the ball fell is composed 

 of clay and soda. 



" Q. — You stated that you were at the distance of forty yards 

 when the ball fell ; did you see then any lightning ? 



" A. — I did not observe any lightning ; the sound was indeed 

 an extraordinary one ; the sky was clear and calm ; the cattle 

 ceased grazing, and lifting up their heads, ran away in amaze- 

 ment. We were struck with fear and looked all round. 



" This mark of Chella Vencataramoodoo taken before me on 

 the aforesaid date. (Signed) T. Marcandaloo, Tahsildar." 



The evidence of another witness was to precisely the same 

 effect. 



The foregoing facts have been quoted by Hofrath Haidingcr 

 from the same source as that from which I have drawn them. 



The weight of the mass as it arrived in the British Museum 

 was 30 lbs. Its specific gravity = 363. 



Its form was rudely prismatic, one end and two sides and the 

 truncated edge of a third coated with crust, the whole of which 

 is much pitted with hollows. The colour of the crust is a deep 

 reddish brown (coloured apparently by ferric oxide). It presents 

 cracks (as if from cooling), and in some parts it has the pitch- 



