JAN. — MAR. 1857.] Supposed Aerolite in a tree. 
247 
top of the main trunk ; a portion of this blighted main branch is 
exhibited. The other two main branches, which rose to a height 
of 50 or 60 feet, were quite sound ; a part of one of these offsets is 
also exhibited. 
" The stool of the tree was visibly perfect and without a flaw, 
and at the wish of Mr. R. Brown, a section of it has been obtained 
since our visit, which is also here, and the rings of which seem to 
confirm the supposition as to the age of the tree. 
'* Mr. Poole having conveyed the tree to Brixton, cut the trunk 
into two nearly equal parts* intending to make cricket-bats out of 
each. In doing so, he ^^erceived that the upper portion of the 
lower of the two segments was in a shaky or imperfect condition, 
and hence he resolved to saw off the upper part of it, intending 
thereby to obtain wood large enough for the " pods" of his cricket- 
bats, but not such entire bats as he was making out of the upper 
segment. 
" In dividing the tree, the saw was stopped at about 8 inches 
from the surface on one side (or the breadth of a large saw) by a 
very hard, impenetrable substance, which was supposed to be a 
nail, and hence Mr. Poole resolved to break up the portion of the 
wood he had previously condemned as of inferior quality, and hew- 
ing it down from the sides he uncovered, to his astonishment, the 
great lump of metalliferous matter, as now seen. Attaching little 
value to it, much of the surrounding wood was thrown away or 
used up before the specimen was brought to Jermyn Street ; but 
enough has been obtained to throw light on the probable or pos- 
sible origin of the included mass. 
" On interrogating Henry Shailer, a market gardener, who has 
long lived on the spot and managed the ground where the tree 
grew, when it was part of the garden of the former clergyman (Mr. 
Weddell), I learnt from him that he had known the spot for sixty 
years, that in his days of boyhood it was a fellmonger's yard, before 
it was attached to the garden. He had observed that the tree was 
blighted in one of its main branches for many years, and had 
always supposed that it was struck by lightning in one of two 
