St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1872-11-22
McIndoes Falls Scientific Club.

Mrs. j. Il. Murdock presented >plin-
ter from IL tree III Chicago, which stood
in front of Il marble house. and during
the great cnmtlagration of IS1l, the
whole tree became pctriiied III the
! flames. in Il very short time. 1t is sup
posed to bc Black Walnut The annu-
al layers and color of the splinter, ap-
pear as natural. as the recent wood.
| Within one hour after the tree was dis
covered to bc pctriticd. il WAS all ear
ricd of a> specimens. This iS indeed Il
remarkable circumstance. and probahly
the only one of the kind on record. The
specimen is in the Cabinet of Dr. Cur
ricr. where it can hc seen 10y all who de
sire.
Mr.. NnlcroSS spoke at some length ON
the subject of motion. He stated that
all motion tended to assume circles.
while light moves in straight lines to
illustrate his proposition he cited the
currents of water in cddicS which cause
large accImulatiomS of tinodwood. and
are kept III constant circular motion g.
Another illustration wa> in the motions
of all the heavenly bodies. These he
considered fixed laws.
Mr. buchanan related his obScrva-
tionS of the November mctoric showers.
that occurred several years since. The
display he stated WAS truly wonderful.
several mcteorS were observed nj Il
time. and appeared /" he shooting in
ancc of thcS, showers Is about the llth
of November. and all VIII" desire to see
/ the wonderful phenomenon. are recon-
mcndcd to watch for it,
| Dr. Currier read il paper on mcteoric
| stones a> follows In the month of last
| May, while waiting at the railroad sta
ton in this village about 10 o'clock III
| the evening, | observed Il meteor de
/ >ccnding in the western horizon. appar
emily about the size of mans fist. Its
color WAS crimson. and bore Il trail of
considerable length behind it of the
same color. Its direction was from
northeast to southwest. and appeared
t" reach the earth about onc-half mile
west of this village. | have been unable
as yet To find its lighting place.
Another time, nearly - years ago,
after twilight one evening, observed
I .l.
>cending to the earth in the vicinity of
| IIaNerhill. y. II. 1t looked about the
size of the moon III full, leaving no trail
behind it, but produced il flash as il de
Sccndcd.
Many other instances could relate
equally as authentic, but us they did
not come under my immediate ohscr-
vation, | will mention only one of them.
I'm the year of lSt}. was visiting pat
ticnt in the family of Dca. James Litch-
field of Potion. u. g., and he said that
one evening he was sitting i'll his door,
looking eastwardly, and observed Il
large ball of fire coming from the west
]
ing sound, descended i'll Il curved line
striking Il rock, and glanced off i'll IL diff
fcrent direction along the grass and was
lost The next day he visited this place
to see if he could find the object or Il
trace of it, nothing was found on the
rock, but IL fulrOw was seen in the turf
about four inches wide. and in some
places. two inches deep, for about two
rods from the rock that WAS struck the
evening previous. The earth that was
torn up WAS in fresh state. This took
place about three years previous to my
visit. ! had il curiosity to visit the
place, and took the Deacon along with
me. On examining the locality, |
found the above named furrow, al
though the grass had grown over it. but
it could he traced more than one rod
from the rock. | could find nothing
srome. 1t might have been buried be
Nond the depth which we dug.
The question which naturally arises,
what are these bodies cannot always
be solved. Many of them fall into the
water, others are never seen, many that
are seen are never found. Undoubtcd-
| " many are gaseous. heavier than the
atmosphere, hence thcirpassage through
it is attended with velocity, and like
those bodies that are of metallic ma
turc. in their passage. there is friction
between them and the atmosphere, this
friction producing heat may bring the
meteorite to an incandescent state.