M. Biot’s summary of the evidence collected by him respecting the great shower of stones which fell at Aigle, in Normandy, is as follows:—
“On Tuesday, 26th April, 1803, about one o’clock, p.m., the weather being serene, there was observed from Caen, Pont d’Audemer, and the environs of Alençon, Falaise, and Verneuil, a fiery globe, of a very brilliant splendour, and which moved in the atmosphere with great rapidity. Some moments after, there was heard at Aigle, and in the environs of that town, in the extent of more than thirty leagues in every direction, a violent explosion, which lasted five or six minutes. At first there were three or four reports like those of a cannon, followed by a kind of discharge which resembled the firing of musketry; after which, there was heard a dreadful rumbling, like the beating of a drum. The air was calm and the sky serene, except a few clouds, such as are frequently observed. This noise proceeded from a small cloud which had a rectangular form; the largest side being in a direction from east to west. It appeared motionless all the time that the phenomenon lasted; but the vapours of which it was composed, were projected momentarily from different sides, by the effect of successive explosions. This cloud was about half a league to the north-north-west of the town of Aigle. It was at a great elevation in the atmosphere; for, the inhabitants of two hamlets, a league distant from each other, saw it at the same time above their heads. In the whole canton over which this cloud was suspended, there was a hissing noise, like that of a stone discharged from a sling; and a great many mineral masses, exactly similar to those distinguished by the name of ‘meteor-stones,’ were seen to fall. The district in which these masses were projected, forms an elliptical extent of about two leagues and a half in length, and nearly one in breadth, the greatest dimension being in a direction from south-east to north-west; forming a declination of about 22 degrees. This direction, which the meteor must have followed, is exactly that of the magnetic meridian, which is a remarkable result. The greatest of these stones fell at the south-eastern extremity of the large axis of the ellipse, the middle-sized in the centre, and the smaller at the other extremity. Hence it appears, that the largest fell first, as might naturally be supposed. The largest of all those that fell, weighs seventeen pounds and a half. The smallest which I have seen, weighs about two gros, (a thousandth part of the last.) The number of all those which fell, is certainly above two or three thousand.”
Meteoric stones have been known to commit great injury in their fall. In July, 1790, a very bright fire-ball, luminous as the sun, of the size of an ordinary balloon, appeared near Bourdeaux, which, after filling the inhabitants with alarm, burst, and disappeared. A few days after, some peasants brought stones into the town, which they said had fallen from the meteor; but, the philosophers to whom they offered them laughed at their statements. One of these stones, fifteen inches in diameter, broke through the roof of a cottage, and killed a herdsman and a bullock. In 1810, a great stone fell at Shahabad, in India. It burnt a village, and killed several people.
The fall of meteoric stones is more frequent than would be supposed. Chaldni has compiled a Catalogue of all recorded instances from the earliest times. Of these, twenty-seven are previous to the Christian era; thirty-five from the beginning of the first to the end of the fourteenth century; eighty-nine from the beginning of the fifteenth to the beginning of the present century; from which time, since the attention of scientific men has
been directed to the subject, above sixty cases have been recorded. These are, doubtless, but a small proportion of the whole amount of meteoric showers which have fallen, when the small extent of surface occupied by those capable of recording the event is compared with the wide expanse of the ocean, the vast uninhabited deserts, mountains, and forests, and the countries occupied by savage nations.
Meteoric stones have generally a broken, irregular surface, coated with a thin black crust, like varnish. When broken, they appear to have been made up of a number of small spherical bodies of a grey colour, imbedded in a gritty substance, and often interspersed with yellow spots. A considerable proportion of iron is found in all of them, partly in a malleable state, partly in that of an oxide, and always in combination with a rather scarce metal called nickel; [181] the earths silica, and
magnesia, and sulphur, form the other chief ingredients; but, the earths alumina and lime, the metals manganese, chrome, and cobalt, together with carbon, soda, and water, have also been found in small quantities, but not in the same specimens. No substance with which chemists were previously unacquainted, has ever been found in them; but no combination, similar to that in meteoric stones, has ever been met with in geological formations, or among the products of any volcano. They are sometimes very friable, sometimes very hard; and some that are friable when they first fall, become hard afterwards. When taken up soon after their fall they are extremely hot. They vary in weight from two drams to several hundred pounds. Meteoric stones have fallen in all climates, in every part of the earth, at all seasons, in the night and in the day.
The meteoric stones already noticed, are not the only metallic bodies which are supposed to fall from the sky. In many parts of the earth masses of malleable iron, often of vast size, have been found. An immense mass seen by Pallas, in Siberia, was discovered at a great height on a mountain of slate, near the river Jenesei. The Tartars held
it in great veneration, as having fallen from heaven. It was removed in the year 1749, to the town of Krasnojarsk, by the inspector of iron mines. The mass, which weighed about 1,400 pounds, was irregular in form, and cellular, like a sponge. The iron was tough and malleable, and was found to contain nickel, silica, magnesia, sulphur, and chrome. Another enormous mass of meteoric iron was found in South America, about the year 1788. It lay in a vast plain, half sunk in the ground, and was supposed, from its size and the known weight of iron, to contain upwards of thirteen tons. Specimens of this mass are now in the British Museum, and have been found to contain 90 per cent. of iron and 10 of nickel. Many other masses of iron might be mentioned, which, from the places in which they are found, and from their composition, leave no doubt as to their being of meteoric origin. The only instance, on record, of iron having been actually seen to fall from the atmosphere, is that which took place at Agram in Croatia, on the 26th May, 1751. About six o’clock in the evening, the sky being quite clear, a ball of fire was seen, which shot along, with a hollow noise, from west to east, and, after a loud explosion accompanied by a great
smoke, two masses of iron fell from it in the form of chains welded together.