November 23, 1810 At half after one o'clock P. M. three stones fell in the commune of Charsonville, in the department of the Loiret, and neighbourhood of Orleans. Their fall was accompanied by a series of detonations which lasted some minutes, and which, along with the reverberations from the echoes, were heard as loud at Orleans, Montargis, Salbri. Vierzon, and Blois, as at the place where the stones fell, excit ing alarm from the apprehension of the blowing up of a powder magazine. These stones were precipitated perpendicularly, and without the appearance of any light or ball of lire. One of them took the ground at but was never discovered ; and, of the other two, one fell at Villcnoi, and the other at Moulin Brelr., all which places are within the distance of a mile. One of the stones weighed about twenty pounds, and made a hole in the ground just large enough for its admission, in a perpendicular direction, driving up the earth to the height of eight or ten feet. It was taken out half an hour after, when it was still so hot that it could scarcely be held in the hand ; and it had a strong smell of gunpowder, which it retained till it was quite (told The second formed a similar hole, three feet deep, weighed forty pounds, and lay fourteen hours in the ground before it was extracted, when it was quite :ool.
Both these stones were shapeless masses, irregularly rounded at the projections, contained rather more fer ruginous globules than those of L'Aigle, and presented a lighter colour, when broken. They were quickly oxy dated, very heavy, sufficiently hard to scratch glass, difficult frangibility, and characterized by an irregular and very fine-grained fracture. The external crust wal the fourth part of a line in thickness, and of a blackish grey colour, while the internal substance was traversed by black lines, or veins, in all directions. The specific gravity of these stones is mentioned, as varying from 3.6 to 3.7 ; and the specimen analyzed by Vauquelin, afford ed to that eminent chemist, Silica, 38.4 Alumine, 3.6 Lime, 4.2 Magnesia, 13.6 Iron, • 25.8 Nickel, 6 Manganese,0.6 • • • Sulphur, . 5 Chrome, . 1.5 98.7 The day on which these stones fell was remarkably calm and serene, the sun shone as bright as in one of the finest days of autumn, and not a cloud appeared above the horizon.
March 12, 1811. A meteorite of the weight of fif teen pounds, fell to the earth, in the village of Thonleg horosk, dependant on the town of Romea, in the govern ment of Tschernigoff, in Russia. Its fall was preceded by three loud peals, like thunder. When dug from the depth of more than three feet, in a thick layer of ice, it was still hot. It was remarked, that, at the third detona tion, there was an extraordinary explosion, accompanied with a loud hissing noise, and the diffusion of a great quantity of sparks. Gilb. An.
July 8, 1811. Stones, one of which weighed three ounces and a quarter, fell at Ballinguillas, in Spain. Biblioth. Brion. T. 48.
April 10, 1812. According to the report of D'Au buisson, chief engineer of mines, about eight o'clock in the evening, a brilliant light was seen in the atmosphere at Toulouse, and for several leagues around. The people at first supposed that the powder magazine of Toulouse had been blown up ; and when it was disco vered that this was unfounded, the light and noise were ascribed to some extraordinary meteor ; for the cold state of the atmosphere, and the force of the explosion, did not admit the idea of its being a simple peal of thun der. A few days afterwards, it was ascertained, that this phenomenon had been accompanied by a shower of stones, at two leagues W. N. W. of Grenade, in the communes of Burgave, Camville, and Verdun, situated in the departments of the Upper Garonne, and of the Tarn and Garonne. As some specimens were sent to the prefect of the Upper Garonne, that magistrate ap pointed a committee, composed of M D'Aubuisson, M. Saget, of the Academy of Sciences, Marque-Victor, pro fessor of physics, and Carney, professor of mathematics, to proceed to the spot, and collect the details of the phenomenon.
The light which spread over the atmosphere burst forth all at once. Although the sun had set an hour and a half before, and the air was dark, the light was so brilliant, that the mayor of Grenade said he could read the smallest characters, and the mayor of Camville com pared it to the light of the sun, adding, that the town clock was as visible as at noon-day, and that a pin might have been picked up from the streets. The exact du ration of this light was not remarked, some persons eckoaing it at two minutes ; others at one ; and others at still less : but scarcely had it disappeared in the place where the meteorites fell, when there were heard in the air three violent detonations, similar to the report of large pieces of cannon, succeeding one another, with hardly any interval, and heard at Castres, twenty leagues from the spot where the stones fell. They were follow ed by a very loud noise, which some compared to that of heavy carriages rolling at once on the pavement ; others compared it to the sound of several drums ; and others to a strong fire of musquetry, from the Spani ards having invaded the country. This rolling noise seemed to issue from the N. E, and to proceed to the S. E.; and, after it had passed over the ground situated between the farms of la Bordette and La Pradere, a sharp hissing noise was heard, which ended in considerable shocks, similar to grape-shot striking the ground, and produced by the fall of the meteorites.