CHAPTER V.
METEORIC STONES OR AEROLITES.
There were a great many accounts in very early times, of stones having fallen from the sky. In China and some other eastern nations, they have long had a notion that such occurrences were connected with political events, and accordingly they have kept careful records of what they have known to fall for centuries back. This was a vain superstition, but it was not more vain than the incredulity with which these reports were received by nearly all the learned of Europe, till about forty years ago. They denied the existence of aerolites, for no other reason than because they had not seen them.
Some new statements attracted the attention of scientific men in England and on the Continent, to the subject, about the beginning of the present century, and the conclusion of their researches was, that stones of various sizes do, in reality, not unfrequently fall from above to the earth.
It appears that sometimes they fall singly, and at other times in great numbers. I will relate to you some particular instances.
Near Benares, in the East Indies, in the month of December in the year 1798, a very bright meteor seemed to fall to the earth, about 8 o'clock in the evening, and a loud noise like thunder was heard, which was followed by a shock like the fall of heavy bodies. No cloud was to be seen in the sky. The light of the meteor was so great as to cast very distinct shadows of the objects in its way. The ground where it appeared to have fallen, was afterwards examined, and was found to be strangely torn up, having a number of small holes in it about six inches deep. At the bottom of each hole was an aerolite weighing on the average about one pound and a half.