290 Proceedings of the Asiatic Society. [No. 4. 



one was. I did not try that of the larger. The crack on the convex 

 side of the larger one I did not perceive at all till it had been wet, 

 and then at first it was just perceptible. Afterwards it gradually 

 opened, I suppose, owing to the oxidation of the native iron it 

 contains, perhaps, however, to other causes. The stones had not 

 been wet till they came into my hands April 21st. They, each of 

 them, fell in cultivated fields, one of which had been harvested. The 

 crop in the other was still standing. 



3. The noise seems to have been terrific to the Natives, causing 

 those near to crouch from fear. It came like two claps of thunder, 

 as they fell one after the other, continuing for some time, but 

 gradually growing less loud. As they fell through the whole depth 

 of our atmosphere, this would naturally be the case. The noise 

 appears to have been heard at Tuticorin, forty miles distant. At 

 this place, sixteen miles north, it excited considerable interest 

 among those abroad at the time. The noise must have been great, 

 occasioned by their great velocity. Taking their specific gravity 

 into the account, say 3-3, their size being about that of large cannon 

 balls, some allowance also being made for their irregular shape, 

 from the depth they penetrated the soil, which was of common 

 hardness, those who have observed the power of projectiles in 

 such cases, will be able to calculate approximately what that 

 velocity was. 



4. Of the excitement among the natives, I suppose, I need not 

 speak. I visited the place, because of the rumours that were flying 

 abroad, making it evident to my mind that something peculiar had 

 there transpired. First, I saw the holes from which, in the culti- 

 vated fields they had been freshly taken, no rain having subsequent- 

 ly fallen, and saw at the bottom the hardly compressed and exact 

 impression left by them as they were taken up, and then as I saw 

 the stones, I knew instantly that they were the identical ones which 

 had been taken from those places. As I was more or less known in 

 that region, and there is no gentleman whatever anywhere near, the 

 rural people, utterly ignorant of the cause, came in great numbers 

 to state the facts, and ask some explanation. Some of them sup- 

 posed they were gods that had fallen ; some that they had been 

 shot from cannon in ships at Tuticorin ; and some, that a Brahman 



