STEWART COUNTY (GEORGIA) METEORITE. 361 



bright and clear, he heard first a succession of about three 

 explosions, resembling bursts of thunder or discharges of artil- 

 lery, followed by a deep roaring for several seconds, and then 

 by a rushing or whizzing sound of something rushing with 

 great speed through the air near by. The sound ceased sud- 

 denly. The noise from first to last was some half a minute. 

 Two negroes were washing near the well in the same yard, 

 about sixty yards from where Barlow stood. They heard the 

 noise, and supposed it to be the falling in of the plank well- 

 curbing, banging from side to side in its descent, and so spoke 

 of it to one another before it fell. While they were speaking 

 thus it struck the ground about twenty steps from them, in full 

 sight, knocking up the dirt. They called Capt. Barlow, and 

 showed him the spot. It was upon very hard-trodden ground 

 in the clean open yard. The earth was freshly loosened up 

 very fine in a circle of about one and a half feet in diameter; 

 and, upon scraping the loose dirt away with the hands the 

 stone was found about ten inches below the surface. From the 

 direction in which the ground was crushed in it must have 

 come from the north-west, and at an angle of about thirty 

 degrees with the horizon. The stone when it was picked up 

 was covered all over with the black shell which it bears now, 

 except a triangular spot on one corner, about one inch each 

 way, where the corner appeared freshly knocked off, and about 

 four other spots near a quarter of an inch in diameter, where 

 the shell was slightly knocked off. The other bruises which 

 you will find upon it have been made since by persons who 

 have handled it. To enable you to distinguish the original 

 breaks upon it I have marked each of them with a red cross. 

 The stone still has a strong odor, which I will not undertake to 

 describe. Capt. Barlow says it smelled stronger when he first 

 picked it up. He does not remember that it had any noticeable 

 heat. It was not cold, as a stone found so deep in the ground 

 should be. 



" The stone weighs now twelve and a quarter ounces; about 

 half an ounce has been pecked off from it. Its color within is 

 strikingly like very light granite; and with the exceptions 

 above noted it is entirely covered with a smooth, almost black 

 shell, a trifle thicker than common letter-paper, so that exter- 

 nally it looks very much like a lump of iron-ore. It is an 



