Prof. Maskelyne and Dr. Lang's Mineralogical Notes, 135 



21. Manegaum. 



The fall of an aerolite at a place variously spelt as Manegaon, 

 Manjegaon, Manicgaon, and Manegaum, in the collectorate of 

 Khandeish in India, on the 16th of July, 1843, has long been on 

 record. For the account of the occurrence we are indebted to a 

 communication from Captain J. Abbott, of the Bengal Artillery, 

 made to the Asiatic Society of Bengal in 1844. (Proceedings of 

 that Society for 1844, p. 880.) 



The points of interest connected with the descent of this aero- 

 lite are as follows : — It fell only fifty paces from two inhabitants 

 of the village of Manegaum, a place " on the banks of the river 

 Pourna," and therefore not to be confounded (as I have in a pre- 

 vious article confounded it) with Mallygaum, the town on the 

 great Bombay and Agra road, nor yet with Menjergaum, the 

 only place with a similar name known to the authorities at the 

 East India Office, and which is 130 miles south-west of Eidulabad. 

 This small village would seem to be a place of insignificant 

 importance, on the confines of Khandeish and to the west of 

 Eidulabad. 



The two villagers describe the fall as having been witnessed 

 by them. There had been several claps of thunder with light- 

 ning some two hours previously, and the northern heavens were 

 heavily charged with clouds ; but no rain had fallen for eight 

 days before, nor did any fall for four days after the event. Their 

 attention was arrested by " several heavy claps of thunder and 

 lightning," and they ran out of a shed to look round, when they 

 saw the aerolite fall in a slanting direction from north to south, 

 " preceded by a flash of lightning." It buried itself 5 inches 

 in the ground, and appeared as a mass of about 15 inches long 

 and 5 inches in diameter. It exhibited a black vitreous exterior, 

 and was of a greyish yellow inside. At first the observers stated 

 it to have been (as is recorded of the Bokkeveldt aerolite) com- 

 paratively plastic (?), and at any rate to have become more hard 

 and compact subsequently* ! There was only one stone seen, and 

 that was smashed to pieces. Another witness mentions that the 

 stone was at first cool, but in a short time became rather warm. 



Descriptions such as this of events so startling, so sudden and 

 momentary, so entirely outside of one's everyday experience, are 

 characterized, as one would expect them to be, with a certain 

 sharpness of feature and simplicity of statement that reflect 

 impressions vividly and indelibly stamped on the mind by phe- 



* The phrase in the translation is the unintelligible one "mouldy." It 

 may mean "crumbly;" but the subsequent expression that it hardened 

 afterwards, implies apparently that a change came over the solidity of 

 structure of the stone. 



