Democratic Sentinel, Volume 7, Number 37, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 12 October 1883 — Meteoric Stones. [ARTICLE]

Meteoric Stones.

An immense aerolite, or meteoric stone fell near -ZEgospatami, in Asia Minor, in 467 B. 0., which was described by Pliny as being as large as a wagon. There is a remarkable one in the Smithsonian Institution, weighing 1,400 pounds, which fell in Mexico about A. D. 1500. The largest meteoric masses on record were heard of first by Gapt. Ross, the Arctic explorer, through some Esquimaux. These lay on the west coast of Greenland, where they were subsequently found by the Swedish Exploring Expedition of 1870. One of them, now in the Royal Museum of Stockholm, weighs over 50,000 pounds, and is the largest specimen known. Two remarkable meteorites have fallen in lowa within a few years past. On Feb. 12, 1875, a very brilliant meteor, in the form of an enlongated horseshoe, was seen through a region of at least 400 miles in length and 250 breadth, lying in Missouri and lowa. It is described as “without a tail but having a sort of flowing jacket of flames. Detonations were heard, so violent as to shake the earth and to jar the windows like the shock of an earthquake,” as it fell, at about 10:30 o’clock p. m., a few miles east of Marengo, lowa. The ground for a space of some seven miles in length by two to four miles in breadth was strewn with fragments of this meteor, varying in weight from a few ounces to seventy-four pounds; the aggregate of the parts discovered being about 500 pounds. On May 10,1879, at about 5 o’clock p. in., a large and extraordinarilyluminous meteor exploded with a terrific noise, followed at slight intervals with less violent detonations, and struck the earth in the edge of a ravine nep,r Estherville, Emmet county, lowa, penetrating to a depth of fourteen feet. Within two miles other fragments were found, one of which weighed 470 pounds and another 32 pounds; the principal mass weighed 431 pounds. All the discovered parts aggregate about 640 pounds. The one of 170 pounds is now in the cabinet of the State University of Minnesota. The composition of this aerolite is peculiar in many respects; but, as in nearly all aerolites, there is a considerable proportion of iron and nickel. —lnter Ocean.