178 Mr. Howard's Experiments and Observations 
(who had been directed to make the inquiry,) under his hand 
and seal. 
Mr. Maclane, a gentleman who resided very near the village 
of Krakhut, gave me part of a stone that had been brought 
to him the morning after the appearance of the phenomenon, 
by the watchman who was on duty at his house ; this, he said, 
had fallen through the top of his hut, which was close by, and 
buried itself several inches in the floor, which was of consoli- 
dated earth. The stone must, by his account, previous to its 
having been broken, have weighed upwards of two pounds. 
At the time the meteor appeared, the sky was perfectly 
serene ; not the smallest vestige of a cloud had been seen since 
the 1 ith of the month, nor were any observed for many days 
after. 
Of these stones, I have seen eight, nearly perfect, besides 
parts of several others, which had been broken by the possessors, 
to distribute among their friends. The form of the more perfect 
ones, appeared to be that of an irregular cube, rounded off at the 
edges ; but the angles were to be observed on most of them. 
They were of various sizes, from about three to upwards of four 
inches in their largest diameter; one of them, measuring four 
inches and a quarter, weighed two pounds twelve ounces. In 
appearance, they were exactly similar: externally, they were 
covered with a hard black coat or incrustation, which in some 
parts had the appearance of varnish, or bitumen ; and, on most 
of them were fractures, which, from their being covered with a 
matter similar to that of the coat, seemed to have been made in 
the fall, by the stones striking against each other, and to have 
passed through some medium, probably an intense heat, pre- 
vious to their reaching the earth. Internally, they consisted of 
a number of small spherical bodies, of a slate colour, embedded 
