The Oxford intelligencer., 1860-06-20


fall upon sn eminence in Provence; and, afler
describing the visible characteristics Of this
stone, added that it weighed fifty-nine pounds.
The diligence Of more modern investigators has
brought together accounts of many similar oc-
currences of earlieT date than the present centq-
ry; and some earlier than either Of the two just
mentioned One fthe most remarkable of these,
was the fall of stone in the year 1892 at Ensis-
helm in Germany, ofthe extraordinary weight of
$50 pounds. Between 1850 and 1900, about a
dozen examples are recorded
The number Of well-authenticated cases of
similar phenomena, srithia the present century,
is very considerable The cabinet of the British
museum contains specimens Of more than thirty
belonging to this period, whose place and time of
fall are known. The total number of specimens
in that collection, embracing those whose times Of
fall are unknown, as well as those in which the
fall was witnessed, is about Seventy. The col
lection at Amherst college, Mass, made by Pro-
fessor Chas. y. Shepard, is the largest in this
country, and, with one exception, the largest in
the world. Ii Iteontained, in 1859, 124 specimens.
The collection at Vienna, in Austria Gin the i'm
perial cabinet), the only one which exceeds Pro-
fessor Shepard's, contained in 1859, 139 speci-
mems, Of which 40 have fallen since 1sOO All
the large collections contain specimens which fell
in your own State of Tennessee; the latest in
point Of date in the catalogues, within this area,
having fallen near Carthage in the year 1S47. The
newest specimen from any locality which kn0n
to be in any collection, is from Harrison county,
Indiana, and fell on the 2Sth of March, 1869.
But as active collectors are almost yearly adding
TO the number of their specimens, and as hardly
year passes now that science has become so
yigant, without some new occurrence of this
kind being noted, do not doubt that many
cabinets are by this time enriched with more re-
cent specimens.
In Inillustration Of this remark, may observe
that the scientific journals contain notices of at
least four meteors attended with explosion, OBJ
served within the United States during the year
1859. The first of these was the Indiana meteor
Of March, mentioned above; the second was one
observed in New England and New York, on the
llth of August; Tie third is reported by Pro-
fessor b. ". Mcdonald, of Bethel college, in the
January number of Silman's JoarRQI Of Silence,
as having passed over West Tennessee on the LIST
Of September; and the fourth was a yeryremarll-
able meteor, seen from Connecticut to Maryland,
with dctonations lasting fully minute on the
10Th of November last.
From my personal knowledge Of the zeal of
prof,eeor Cbeporl u; oil c,ots H.,
kind, and in gathering visible evidences of them,
feel quite confident that some of the rocks of
the recent Ohio shower are already in Amherst
The number Of fragments which have fallen on
a single occasion has been very various. 0cca-
sionaly but single mass has been known to
fall, but more usually there have been several
and now and then vast number. In the case
of the Normandy shower above mentioned Mr.
Blot stated as the result ofhs investigation, tina.
the total number must have been several thous.
and. The dctonations, on that occasion, were
heard nearly hundred miles in every direction
The weight Of the masses fallen has been no
less various The smaller fragments have been
Of but a few ounces--thc larger of many hundred
or entirely of iron, aluyed with certain propor-
ton of nickel--a combination never found native
in minerals of terrestrial origin. There is one
specimen Of this kind from South America, in the
British museum, Gtsclf but part Of the entire
mass which weighs |, 400 pounds. There is an
other in the cabinet of Yale College, from Texas,
of which the weight exceeds 600 pounds.
DIR. j. Lawrence Smith, of Louisville, quotes
(SHLmANs Journal, March, 1850 from the man.
uscrpt journal Of Commissioner Bartlett, of the
Mexican boundary survey, a description ora mass
of meteoric iron still larger than either of these
above mentioned, existing .at the Hqcicpda de
Conception, ten miles from Lapata Chihuahua.
IT'S weight is stated, on the authority Of Scnor
Urquida, at three thousand, eight hundred and
ffty-three pounds. This was the largest mass
of mcteoric iron on record, according to my pres
ent recollection, until the recent discovery, by
DR. John Evans, United States Geologst for Or
egon, of mass in that Territory (now Statc,) of
entirely unprecedented and ofas yet imperfectly
dimensions From the epartial meas
urements reported, it must weigh many tons.
The meteorological character of these aerolitcs
is so peculiar that chemists and mineralogsts
have now no difficulty in recognizing specimen
wherever found, though there may have been no
witnesses Gifts fall, and though it may have pos
sibly been lying for centuries where it is found.
The clements which enter into their composition
arc few in number; and among these mallcablc
iron combined with nickel is almost or quite in
variably present, and sometimes in fact consti-
tutes the entire mass. Besides these chemical
the masses are also recognizable
by their peculiar appearance, and their superb
cal vitrifaction. A sort Of glazed crust appears
to cover them, which is correctly described by
Lieut. Tibball, in the letter which you send me.
This crust, which is usually dark over those parts
of the surface which seem to have been external
in the original mass, appears to extend, though
with Fighter tint, over the fresh fractures made
by ~ explosion. When the masses have been
examined as they lay, Immediately after the fall,
they have invariably been found to be hot-often
too hot to be touched-and imbeddcd more or less
deeply in the earth by the force of the fall.
In what have thus faf written, have proba-
bly, not touched the question which chiefly inter