jan. — mar. 1857 J Supposed Aerolite in a tree. Ml 



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 perceived 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 



