Year: 1868

Yesterdaya strange and terrible
natural phenomenon occurred IN
Cheatham county, about nineteen
miles from that city, on the line
of the Nashville and Northwestern
railroad. About one o'clock while
the men employed on the planta-
tion of Joshua Fulgham were so.
ing into a field to pluck fodder, the
sun being hid behind clouds at
the time, and a general gloom per-
vading the sky, they were much
frightened and confused by the
apparent opening of the clouds,
judging from the description ofthe
phenomenon, not more than five
or six degrees north Of the zenith.
Theyjudgcd the cloud to be about
three quarters Of mile high. The
strange sight attracted their no.
tice. A brilliant whitish red
glare overspread an immense mass
of black clouds, on the centre Of
which appeared fuunel-like sp-
erture about four or five feet in
diameter, the sides Of which pre-
scnted the appearance Of ragged
flames darting like fiery tongues,
and licking and tapping at a large
white hot object passing with in
conceivable rapidity dowR through
the aperture. When it left the
mass Of clouds it did not appear
to fall in aperpendlcular direction,
but sloped at an inclination Of
some ten or fifteen degrees from
a plumb line, and grew more in
tensely bright as it approached
earth. Itswept down like a bright
angel of destruction; it struck the
earth with asoundlike sudden ter
rife clap Of thunder, and seemed
to make the surrounding hills
culver to their foundation; great
numbers of trees on their rocky
sides fell, and continued falling for
several minutes afterwards, ma
king noises like the prolonged
reverberations Of the thunder
among rocky cliffs. ~, ~


The men were about four hum
dred yards from the place where
the fiery missive from the sky
struck, and were afraid to. go and
examine the place for several hours
afterwards. They took courage,
however, and being joined by
numbers of people living in the
surrounding neighborhood, they
proceeded to the place and found
that it had struck upon a fat ledge
of rock in wagon way leading
from a farmhouse to the pub
lie road. That fragments Of
stone were around for several
| rods in all directions; the ledge,
| which is said to be three feet
| thick, without any seams, was
! disturbed for a distance Of about
fifty feet, split and torn up in frag-
ments; the soil, which was spread
in thin layers all over it, looked as
if it had passed through a seive.
At the point where the strange
body came in contact with the rock
there appeared to be no soil at all,
but a very fine, white, houry sort
of paste, which was quite hot, and
steam ascendcd out of the hole
in which it had buried itself, which
was too hot to approach.


Several gentlemen of a philoso-
phical turn of mind were strongly
of the opinion that it was an aero<
lite brought into state Of fusion
by coming down through the at;
mosphere, but had not been COM:
pletely burned before touching the.
earth.


There was o strong odor about
the place, such as may be found in
blasting furnaces; and the passage
of the aerolite was marked by q
lightyellowish sort ofsmoke. Very
fine particles Of some oxide cont
nued to fall all over the country
for several hours.


It is the intention of the people
to organize a working party to
quarry out what remains OF the
body, which is undoubtedly metal,
as soon as the temperature of the
rocks will admit.


AS yet it seems to be premature
to enter on any speculation reia-
tive to the nature OF the strange
phenomenon. Moreover, the seien-