tree. That which I supposed to have been the outside of the stone, had a dark brown color, and formed a crust of the thickness of coarse wrapping paper. It had evidently been exposed to intense heat. The injured side of the tree was to the southwest, from which side I was informed that fragments of the stone were projected to a very great distance (three fourths of a mile).

"Those who first visited the place differ greatly as to the weight of the stone, the estimates varying from fifty to one hundred and fifty pounds; my own opinion is, that it must have weighed at least fifty pounds. The place not being far from the public road, the fragments were soon gathered up by travellers, and have been dispersed very widely through the country. It may be proper to add, that I am a native of this place, and that I never saw any other stone resembling the one I send you, here or elsewhere; and that it is quite impossible to account for the injury to the tree, except on the supposition of its being produced by a stone falling from the atmosphere."

The following communication is from M. Frissell, Esq., of Potosi, Mo., dated March 12, 1842:-"The meteor, of which the stone in my possession formed a part, passed in a westerly direction. It must have been large, and I presume that the main body passed on, the piece that fell having formed but a small part of the whole. I did not witness the meteor. Some persons who did, compared it to a trumpet in shape, moving with the expanded end foremost. The time of its passage was between two and three o'clock, P. M. Shortly after it had passed the meridian of this place, it exploded with the noise of a heavy piece of ordnance, at two or three miles distance. I was in my office at the time. My first impression was, that it was an earthquake. I was soon apprised however of what had passed through the air, when I became convinced that the report had proceeded from a meteor. The report was double; like two cannons fired at nearly the same instant, the second being louder than the first. The meteor must have been twenty miles from this place when the explosion took place. I expected that fragments would have been found in this immediate vicinity, but the only one discovered was at Pine Bluff, about eighty miles distant."*

The crust to this stone has about the same thickness as that of the Iowa meteorite, though its line of junction with the mass beneath is less perfectly defined. Its color is rather less black, and its surface less smooth and duller. Judging from one specimen

* Mr. Frissell was so obliging as to present me the specimen here referred to. SECOND SERIES, Vol. VI, No. 18.-Nov., 1848. 53

in my possession, which exhibits nearly two square inches of natural outside, it would appear that its surface must have been marked by very distinct depressions. The color within also, resembles that of the Iowa stone. The stone consist of

For an account of this stone, see Memoirs of the Connecticut Academy, Vol. i, p. 141; Trans. Amer. Phil. Soc., Vol. vi, p. 323; Medical Repertory, Vol. xi, p. 202; Trans. Amer. Acad., Vol. iii, p. 213; Amer. Journ. Science, Vol. xxxvii, p. 130; Journal de Physique, Vol. lxx, p. 429; Die Meteoriten von P. Partsch, s. 41, Wien, 1843.

Its crust is thicker than in the majority of our meteoric stones, though less perfectly continuous and well formed,―being rough, dull, and filled with crevices. Its color is brownish black. When broken, the interior shows occasional joints, with plumbaginous coatings. The prevailing color within is a dark pearl gray. Scattered through the mass, at frequent intervals, are patches of a lighter color, imparting to it a sub-porphyritic aspect. These lighter portions do not consist of a perfectly homogeneous mineral, but rather of a semi-pulverulent substance, which is probably decomposing howardite. The main ingredient of the meteorite is a purplish gray (sometimes greenish gray) mineral, in rounded grains, which appear to be olivinoid. These again are mixed with other imperfectly formed grains of a lighter colored yellowish mineral (often stained by oxyd of iron). This latter substance is taken for howardite also. Magnetic pyrites (less abundant than in most stones) is irregularly disseminated, in highly tarnished grains.

The nickel-iron is more abundant than in any meteoric stone yet described, presenting itself not only in little points, but in continuous threads and veins and in oval pitted masses, sometimes of more than fifty grs. weight. One of these, in my possession, strikingly resembles in shape some of the lumps of meteoric iron in their natural state.*

*The striking analogy in external figure between meteoric iron-masses generally, and bedded inasses of native copper and native gold, (independently of the diminutive cases here referred to,) suggests the idea that the great iron-masses themselves have, at some period, been embraced in an earthy gangue.

For an account of this stone see Vols. xv, p. 196, xvi, 191, and Die Meteoriten von P. Partsch, s. 40, Wien, 1843.

This small and highly interesting stone appears to have been but imperfectly invested by the customary black crust. The natural outside of the fragments which I have examined, possessed the usual smoothness of surface, but were but partially melted. Nor did it appear that any more perfect coating had ⚫ ever been attached to the surface. Within, the general color is a dark ash gray. Interspersed through the mass, however, are freckles of a whitish mineral, which are probably howardite. The gray portion consists of olivinoid, and forms at least ninetenths of the earthy portion of the stone.

10. Bishopsville, South Carolina.

For my first knowledge of this, the most remarkable of all the hitherto described meteorites of the United States, I am indebted to Dr. J. C. Haynsworth, of Sumterville, South Carolina. His letter to me, (dated April 7, 1846,) which is here given, contains all the information respecting its fall, which I have thus far been able to obtain. "I have in possession a meteoric stone which fell in March, 1843, near Bishopsville, in the northern part of Sumter District. The passage of the meteor and its explosion were witnessed by many spectators, over a region of country of thirty or forty miles in diameter. The descent of the stone itself also, was observed by a number of negroes. Their terror was so great on seeing the excavation it produced, the scattering of the soil, and more than all, by the insupportable sulphurous odors with which the air was filled, that they fled in a panic from the field. On the following morning, however, headed by a white man they returned to the spot; and after digging three feet or more, in a sandy soil, they came upon the stone which I now possess. That it is meteoric is as well known as possible perhaps, in the absence of a scientific analysis. It has more the appearance of limestone than of any other rock with which I am acquainted, though it is much heavier than the same bulk of limerock. It has, moreover, numerous particles resembling oxyd of iron, diffused through it. It is coated with a dark shining surface, resembling glass that has been stained with some metallic oxyd. When first dug up, the sulphurous odor was said to have been overpowering. This has now subsided, though it can be reproduced by friction or slight warmth. It begins to suffer decomposition, from the access of air and moisture to the interior, as portions of the vitreous coating have been removed for specimens, by persons who have examined it."

The stone was purchased for me by Dr. Haynsworth, and is now in my possession. Its weight was thirteen pounds. Its shape may be judged of from the annexed figure 1.

It measures 9 inches in its longest diameter, by 5 and 5, in its transverse dimensions. It is rounded at its thicker extremity, from whence, after bulging somewhat, it gradually tapers to the smaller end, which is obviously pyramidal, with four sides. This is exhibited in fig. 2, where the stone rests on its side.

Being an uncommonly fragile stone, the glazed coating had disappeared from the angles and the ends of the mass, leaving not more than two-thirds of the surface protected by the original crust, which is generally smooth, of a mottled aspect, the colors being black, white, and bluish gray, not unlike certain clouded marbles. The black portions are glossy and obsidian-like, the gray and white for the most part, dull, though the white is sometimes shining and transparent like enamel on porcelain. It is traversed by frequent cracks or fissures, which penetrate for some distance into the stone; the walls of these fissures being themselves partially fused for a little way inward from the ex

terior.

An interior view of the stone is no less peculiar. The pearly white color of its basis and its feldspathic crystallization, at first view, make it difficult to regard it as any thing else than a decomposing mass of albitic granite. A nearer inspection, however, satisfies the observer, that the white substance (chladnite, which is nearly as tender as laumonite) is different from any terrestrial mineral. It is seen, moreover, to be traversed with little black veins, and here and there to include little grains of deeply rusted nickeliferous iron, some of which are as large as a pea. Black grains and even crystals of sulphuret of chromium (schreibersite resembling allanite in form and color) are occasionally visible. Brown colored pyrites, in very minute quantity, is diffused through the stone; and especially is it visible in contact with the sulphuret of chromium. A peculiar blue mineral (iodolite), and a honeyyellow one (apatoid), as well as traces of sulphur, are likewise present in traces in the stone.

Whenever the stone is broken or rubbed, it emits the odor of sulphurous acid. Water dissolves from it decided traces of hyposulphite of soda, hyposulphite of magnesia, sulphate of magnesia, chlorid of magnesium, chlorid of sodium, and silicic acid. The proportions in which the different visible minerals are present may be thus expressed:

To this species I refer the globular grains of a gray color They are less frangible and much harder than the chladnite. In a strong heat, before the blowpipe, it turns white upon the edges, slightly vitrifying, but does not melt. With borax, it slowly disappears, without more than tinging the color of the bead.