by those who witnessed the fall of the fragments; but the sounds, as heard by them, first proceeded from the zenith, and gradually receded towards the southeast. This seemingly contradictory fact agrees perfectly with the hypothesis that the course of the meteor was northwesterly; for if it approached with a velocity greatly exceeding the velocity of sound, the explosions which occurred last must have been the first heard. At some distant stations towards the south and west the view was not wholly obstructed by clouds; and there are many witnesses who relate that a few minutes before any report was heard, they saw a large ball of fire pass across the northern sky, towards the northwest. By tracing out the line along which the reports were loudest and seemed to proceed from the zenith, I am led to the conclusion that the meteor passed over the eastern end of Washington County, then across the interior of Noble County, then over the southwestern corner of Guernsey and the northeastern corner of Muskingum, with a direction of about 42° west of north.

2. Its height above the earth.—Mr. William C. Welles of Parkersburg, Virginia (lat. 39° 10′, long. 81° 24′), a gentleman of liberal education, testifies that being about three miles east of that place at the time of the occurrence, he happened to look up to the northeast of him, and saw a meteor of great size and brilliancy, emerging from behind one cloud and disappearing behind another. When about 35° east of north he thinks its altitude was 65°. Now the distance, in a direction 35° east of north, from his station to the line directly under the meteor's path, is 20 miles. Calculating from these data I find for the vertical height, taken to the nearest unit, 43 miles. This was at a point in Washington County near the border of Noble.

Mr. C. Hackley testifies that he saw the meteor from Berlin in Jackson County. It crossed a cloudless space in the northeast, and he thinks its altitude, at the highest point, was 30°. Now the distance from Berlin to the nearest point under the meteor's path is 70 miles. These data give nearly 41 miles for its vertical height over Noble County, a few miles to the south of Sarahsville (lat. 39° 53', long. 81° 40').

Many other reliable witnesses have been found who saw the meteor through openings in the clouds from various points west of its path; and whose testimony so far agrees with the foregoing as to give results ranging between 37 and 44 miles. Care has been taken as far as possible to verify the data in each case by personal examination of the witnesses. The angles have in most instances been taken as pointed out by them from their respective posts of observation. It is unfortunate that no case has come to our knowledge in which the meteor was seen from the region east of its path. But it was a circumstance in some

respects favorable to the definiteness of the observations made. from the west side, that the observers in nearly all cases saw the meteor only at one point, or within a very small space on the heavens. It is impossible to reconcile the various accounts without granting that its path was very nearly as above described, and that its height did not vary far from 40 miles as it crossed Noble County.

In regard to the time which intervened, at different places, between seeing the fire-ball and hearing the report, the statements are so vague that not much reliance has been placed upon them. It may be remarked, however, that they will essentially agree with the foregoing conclusions, if we suppose that the loudest explosion took place in the southern part of Noble County.

I will add under this head the statement of Mr. Joel Richardson, of Warren, Washington County, who from a place six miles west of Marietta, saw the meteor as much as 15° or 20° west of north, at an altitude of about 45°. The direction in this case was so oblique to the meteor's path, that the data are of little value for simply determining the height; but they are important on account of their connection with the place of the meteor's last appearance. Mr. Richardson was visited by the writer, and his testimony was subjected to close scrutiny. If we take the azimuth at 15° west of north, we shall have a distance of 41 miles to the line under the meteor's path; and these data will give about 41 miles for its vertical height over a point not more than a mile from New Concord, at the extreme western limit of the district along which the meteorites were scattered. If we take the azimuth at 20° west of north, both the distance and the height will be greatly augmented. I have found two persons living near Bear Creek, nine miles north of Marietta, who make statements closely corroborating that of Mr. Richardson.

3. Velocity of the meteor.-Mr. Welles furnishes data from which we can now determine approximately the meteor's rate of motion. As this gentleman is somewhat accustomed to astronomical observation, his judgment as to angles may be strongly relied upon. He thinks he saw the meteor pass from a point 50° east of north to a point 20° east of north in about three seconds. These two points in the meteor's path are over the townships of Newport in Washington County, and Elk in Noble County. The distance between them is 12 miles. According to these data, then, its relative velocity was about four miles a second. No other statement regarding the velocity has been obtained that is sufficiently definite to be of any value.

4. Its size and shape.-Those who saw the fire-ball from stations not less than 20 and not more than 30 miles to the westward, agree in stating that it appeared as large and as round as

the full moon. Its intense brilliancy may have produced exaggerated conceptions of its size. But if we take the minimum apparent diameter of the moon, and the minimum distance of the meteor (its height being assumed as 40 miles) we shall have for its diameter 38-hundredths, or about three-eighths of a mile. The train is described as a cone, having its base upon the fireball. As seen from near Parkersburg its length was estimated at twelve times the diameter of the ball. The part next the base appeared as a white flame; but not so bright as to render the outline of the ball indistinct. About half way toward the apex it faded into a steel blue.

(3.) Notice of the Fall from D. M. JOHNSON, Esq., of Coshocton, O.

[Mr. Johnson's notice of this shower of meteoric stones is the result of a visit to the locality a few days after the event. We copy the following particulars from Mr. Johnson's account as giving circumstantial detail and historic interest to the facts recounted by Profs. Andrews and Evans. Mr. Johnson also adds a chemical analysis of the meteor.-EDS.]

Two carpenters, Samuel L. Hines and Samuel M. Noble, were at work near the house on the farm of Jonas Amspoker, of New Concord. Upon hearing the first report they looked up and saw two dark looking objects, apparently about the size of an apple, come through a cloud, producing a twirling motion in the vapor of the cloud. One of them they saw fall to the ground about one hundred and fifty yards from where they stood. The other one passed behind the house out of their sight. They went immediately to the one which they saw strike the ground, and found it at the bottom of a hole two feet deep. When taken out it was still warm and in a few seconds dried the moist earth adhering to its surface. It was found to weigh 51 pounds.

Nathanael Hines, who was ploughing in a field adjoining Mr. Amspoker's place, heard a report like the blasting of rocks in a well, followed by several smaller reports. He looked up and saw a black body descending to the earth at an angle of about 30° to the vertical. It struck the ground about two hundred yards from him. Repairing to the place he found that in its descent it came in contact with the corner of a fence, breaking off the ends of the three lower rails, and entering the ground about eighteen inches. It was warm, and had a sulphurous smell. This stone was not weighed, but it is estimated to have been between 40 and 50 pounds in weight before any portions were broken off from it. This was probably the stone that the carpenters saw but lost sight of when it passed behind the house.

James M. Reasner was in his house at the time of the explosion, but hearing a noise like striking against the door with the fist he went out, when his attention was attracted by a whizzing

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sound over head. Looking up he saw what appeared to be a black streak descending in a slanting direction towards the earth. After he heard that stones had fallen in that vicinity he sought for and found a stone weighing 361 pounds.

Wm. Law was in his house, one mile east of Concord. Upon hearing the first report he went out into the yard. He heard a buzzing sound passing over the house in a northwest direction, and saw the sheep running in a field not far from the house. Hearing that stones had fallen he went to the field in which the sheep were and found a stone weighing 53 pounds. It had fallen upon the end of a partially decayed log, through which it passed and buried itself it the ground. This was the largest stone that had been found at the time I visited the district. But I since learn that the one described by Prof. Andrews was found after my visit to the place.

A blazing meteor was seen from other parts of the state on the same day. The Columbus Statesman of May 5th says that "near McConnellsville several boys observed a huge stone descend to the earth, which they averred looked like a red ball, leaving a line of smoke in its wake." McConnellsville is 25 miles south of Concord.

Mr. D. Mackley of Jackson Co., in a communication to the Cincinnati Commercial, says, "On the first day of May, at precisely half past 12 o'clock, I was standing on the platform at the railroad station in Berlin when I saw, in a northeast direction, a ball of fire, about 30° above the horizon. It was flying in a northerly direction with great velocity. It appeared as white as melted iron, and left a bright streak of fire behind it which soon faded into a white vapor. This remained more than a minute, when it became crooked and disappeared." Berlin is about 80 miles southwest of Concord.

The meteor seen from McConnellsville and Berlin was undoubtedly the same that exploded and fell in Guernsey County. No one of the many persons who saw the stones fall and were in the immediate vicinity at the time, noticed anything of the luminous appearance described by those who saw it from a distance.

All the stones that I have yet seen have the same general appearance. They are irregular blocks, and are covered with a very thin black crust, which looks as if it had been fused. The edges of the blocks are not sharp but rounded, and the faces present the usual pitted appearance of meteorites. They absorb water with a hissing sound. The fragments are of a bluish gray color. Under the lens five substances can be detected. A snowwhite mineral is largely disseminated throughout the mass. clearer white mineral can be distinguished in some specimens. Metallic grains are quite numerous, a yellowish brown mineral

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in patches, and black particles scattered over the surface. One specimen had very thin veins of a shining black mineral. When in large masses the stone is exceedingly tough, requiring repeated blows with a hammer to fracture it, but when broken into small pieces it can be crushed with ease in an agate mortar. The specific gravity of the mass was found to be 3·5417. On analysis one gramme of the stone was found to contain:

(4.) Prof. J. LAWRENCE SMITH, M.D., of Louisville, Ky., informs us that, on hearing vague rumors of the event two days after its occurrence (reported as an earthquake accompanied by a fall of stones), and although four hundred miles distant from the place, he immediately visited New Concord and obtained all possible data respecting the phenomenon. He is convinced from a thorough examination of the facts that no fall of meteoric stones before recorded possesses so many points of interest as the one in question, surpassing even the far famed fall at L'Aigle. He reserves many details of the event with his chemical examination for a paper in the next number of this Journal. analyses, so far as they are complete, show the constitution of the New Concord stones to be identical with those that fell about the same time last year, March 28, 1859, in Indiana (see this Jour., xxviii, 409).

Louisville, Ky., June 6, 1860.

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Thus far about thirty stones have been recovered from this fall, and one witness estimates the entire weight of the fragments discovered at about seven hundred pounds.

The fine specimen (figure 1) secured by Prof. Andrews for Marietta College, is, we believe, the largest meteoric fragment hitherto recorded as existing in one piece. Profs. Silliman and Kingsley estimated the weight of a fragment of the Weston meteorite (1807), which was dashed in many pieces by falling on a rock, as about 200 pounds.-Mem. Conn. Acad, i, 149.