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 it hovered, a hissing noise like
that of a stone discharged from a sling was heard, and a multitude of
mineral masses were seen to fall to the ground. The largest that fell
weighed 17-1/2 pounds; and the gross number amounted to nearly three
thousand. By the direction of the Academy of Sciences, all the
circumstances of this event were minutely examined by a commission of
inquiry, with the celebrated M. Biot at its head. They were found in
harmony with the preceding relation, and reported to the French minister
of the interior. Upon analyzing the stones, they were found identical
with those of Benares.

The following are the principal facts with reference to the aerolites,
upon which general dependence may be placed. Immediately after their
descent they are always intensely hot. They are covered with a fused
black incrustation, consisting chiefly of oxide of iron; and, what is
most remarkable, their chemical analysis develops the same substances in
nearly the same proportions, though one may have reached the earth in
India and another in England. Their specific gravities are about the
same; considering 1000 as the proportionate number for the specific
gravity of water, that of some of the aerolites has been found to be,

Ensisheim stone 3233
Benares 3352
Sienna 3418
Gassendi's 3456
Yorkshire 3508
Bachelay's 3535
Bohemia 4281.

The greater specific gravity of the Bohemian stone arose from its
containing a greater proportion of iron. An analysis of one of the
stones that fell at L'Aigle gives:

Silica 46 per cent
Magnesia 10 "
Iron 45 "
Nickel 2 "
Sulphur 5 "
Zinc 1 "

Iron is found in all these bodies, and in a considerable quantity, with
the rare metal nickel. It is a singular fact, that though a chemical
examination of their composition has not discovered any substance with
which we were not previously acquainted, yet no other bodies have yet
been found, native to the earth, which contain the same ingredients
combined. Neither products of the volcanoes, whether extinct or in
action, nor the stratified or unstratified rocks, have exhibited a
sample of that comb