1860.] Proceedings of tlie Asiatic Society. 415 



Yerily this has been an extraordinary season in more ways than 

 one. 



In different newspapers I have read accounts of other very ex- 

 traordinary phenomena, all occurring within the last few months, for 

 instance, an aerial meteor or water spont in the neighbourhood of 

 Bhurtpore where an aerolite is said also to have fallen, a luminous 

 meteor or somethiDg which, from the newspaper account, reads like an 

 Aurora Borealis at Delhi, this was on the night before the meteorolite, a 

 shower of live fish at Benares, unaccompanied by rain, a similar shower 

 accompanied by rain, fell at Agrá, a shower of blood at Furruckabad 

 andlikewise at Meerut previously, also a dark spot observable on the 

 disc of the sun. 



Besides the recent shock of an earthquake slightly felt here, there 

 was an unnatural yellow fog or darkness of some duration follow- 

 ed by a violent Wind storm which lasted from 3 p. M. to 5 p. m. one 

 afternoon early in the present month. These were all more or less 

 strange phenomena. After the fall the largest piece found was said 

 to weigh about 4 maunds. 



6. The following extract from a letter from Dhurmsala on the same 

 subject had been also received. 



" What a terrific meteor we had yesterday ! It burst over Dhurm- 

 sala. First there was a loud explosión, and then the stone broke into 

 fragments ; one fallir) g near the Barracks and sinking 6 feet into the 

 ground,another below the Kotwallee on the Noorpore Eoad, and a third 

 in the lines. Two men carne running up with some bits in their hand, 

 and gave me one. It is a light grey colour, and hard as iron. The 

 stone when found was cold as ice. The noise was fearful and unearth- 

 ly, followed by long reverberations, the ground trembling as well as the 



air. The heat was fearful all day. Ther. 89°. Major ■ heard the 



noise when sitting inside his tent at Kangra, and he thought one of 

 the towers had fallen. The guddees were much frightened and car- 



ried oíf every bit of the stone to do pooja to it. Capt. saw 



it whirling along in the air and so did the Bisaladar who described it 

 as like a pine tree, which I remember was the illustration used by 

 Pliny, when describing the eruption of Vesuvius 1800 years ago, when 

 Pompeii was destroyed. Other fragments of stone fell in other parts 

 of the district, and beyond it at Madoopore. The piece of stone to 



