H. A. Ward — Andover Meteorite. 395 



Art. XXXIX. -«- The Andover Meteorite /* by Henry 



A. Ward. 



The State of Maine has long had three meteorites to its 

 credit : Nobleboro 1823, Castine 1848, Searsmont 1871. All 

 are stones, and all fell in the southern half of the state. We 

 now give first public record to a fourth, also from south of the 

 middle parallel of the state, and also an aerolite. We owe 

 the first knowledge of this to Mr. Henry Y. Poor, of Brook- 

 line, Mass., the present owner of the mass. This gentleman 

 obtained the specimen from the original owner, on whose 

 farm, adjacent to his summer residence in Andover, Oxford 

 Co., Maine, it fell. Mr. Poor, with great liberality, placed it 

 at my disposition for examination and description. I further 

 received a letter from Mr. Lincoln Dresser, of Andover, who 

 tells the whole story of its fall. Mr. Dresser says, " The 

 meteor that fell near my house on the morning of Aug. 5th, 

 1898, was witnessed by me, and I was within 25 feet of it 

 when it came down. It came from the northwest at an angle 

 of 75 degrees, and in all probability came from the constella- 

 tion of Perseus (!). It was accompanied by a loud noise 

 resembling a buzz saw, and had a following of smoke. It was 

 in intense heat when it struck a stone in the wall, grazing the 

 stone. In its fall it passed down through the branches of an 

 elm tree, cutting many of them off as cleanly as if done by a 

 sharp knife. I supposed at the time it was a gaseous ball of 

 fire, and thought it exploded, but after examination I found 

 where it imbedded itself in the earth to the depth of 2-J- feet. 

 I secured, by digging, a large piece weighing 7£ lbs., and two 

 or three small ones which were broken by its striking the rock 

 fence. The large piece was irregular in shape and had the 

 appearance of having exploded in the air, as a large piece was 

 lost from one side before it went into the ground. The crust 

 of this one on three sides had a blackened surface with shallow 

 dents, like finger points. The broken part shows a gray rock, 

 looking like silver. The break was fresh, and on exposure to 

 the air you could observe the iron coloring in it. It was of 

 the finest of granite. People in the adjoining towns heard the 

 peculiar buzzing noise, and heard a loud report, probably when 

 it burst." 



In June, of the present year, I had the privilege of visiting 

 the spot in Andover where the stone fell. A sharp dent in 

 the granite wall still shows freshly where the stone struck at 

 its first impact. In falling it had passed through thickly set, 

 small branches of an elm tree directly above. Mr. Dresser 



* Read before the Rochester Academy of Science, November 10, 1902. 



