170 Proceedings of the Asiatic Society. [No. 2. 



a large meteorite weighing 14 fbs. and the following note on the 

 same by Dr. Evan McDonell. 



" I was informed by a native on the 7th of March, 1853, that a 

 shower of stones had fallen in the neighbourhood of Soojoulee on 

 the preceding day at noon. 



u I immediately sent a person to make enquiry as to the truth of 

 what had been related to me. The person sent, returned the follow- 

 ing morning and brought me three meteoric stones. He stated that 

 many more had fallen, and had been picked up by other parties. 



" In the meantime I met three of the Officers of the Irregular 

 Cavalry at Soojoulee, who informed me that they had all remarked, and 

 been much struck with the peculiar rumbling noise they had heard 

 on the previous day at noon ; it could not be mistaken for thunder, 

 the sound being, as stated by them, totally different. An Italian 

 priest stationed at Bettiah, seventeen miles "West of Soojoulee, 

 remarked the same kind of noise at the same hour, and he men- 

 tioned to me that all the natives around him were much alarmed, 

 and the head " gooroo" of the Bettiah Baja sent to ask him if he 

 could explain what such strange sounds in the heavens portended. 

 Another Italian missionary priest stationed six miles North-West 

 of Bettiah, made the same remarks. The priest at Bettiah com- 

 pared the noise to that of a heavy cart or waggon passing over a 

 platform. The sounds were audible for forty seconds, the sky was 

 cloudless and the sun shining brightly at the time. The wind was 

 west and cool, the weather for some days previous to the 6th March 

 was particularly cool. The Thermometer stood on the 4th, 5th and 

 6th at 44° at day -light. The number of meteoric stones which I 

 know to have been picked up within a circle of a mile, amounts to at 

 least thirty. The weight varied from ^ lb to 4 ibs. and one weighed 

 as much as 14^ fts. The shape in every instance was less or more 

 pyramidal." 



The Librarian and the Curator in the Zoological Department having 

 submitted their usual monthly reports, the meeting adjourned, 



Library. 





The library has received the following additions during the months of 

 December and Januarv last. 



