Aerolites, or Meteoric Stones

Meteoric stones, in single masses and in showers, have fallen from the atmosphere at various periods, in many parts of the world. The largest of these stones at present known is in the province of Tucuman, South America, and weighs thirty thousand pounds.

Aerolites have been proven to be atmospheric, both by eye-witnesses, by the similarity of their composition in all cases, and also by the fact, that, though the materials mingled are well known, they are never united in the same manner as in the productions of our globe, and nothing like them has been ejected from terrestrial volcanoes; and, further, by the fact that their situation is generally isolated, and on the surface of the earth. There have been many theories advanced as to their origin.

La Place traces them to volcanic origin. The respect due to his opinions no one will dispute; but Professor Olmsted, the American astronomer, has offered the most satisfactory explanation. He has shown that countless bodies of small dimensions cluster together in vast rings, and revolve, as do the planets, around the sun.

These bodies become visible when the orbit of the earth approaches their orbit; and, when they come within the atmosphere of the earth, they are ignited, and fall upon the earth as meteoric stones. A remarkable aerolite fell at AEgospotami, in 467 B.C., which was, according to Pliny, to be seen in his day, "as large as a wagon." One fell in California, in August, 1873, which penetrated the earth to a depth of eight feet, and when dug up was still so hot that it could not be handled.