1.9 KiB
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September
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A meteor is observed in Leavenworth (Galena) in multiple parts or exploding.
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A meteor is observed by Colonel Bonneville in Cincinnati.
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James Lumley, an old Rocky Mountain trapper, set out to trap in the mountains about 75 or 100 miles above the Great Falls of the Upper Missouri, near the Cadotte Pass. Shortly after sunset one evening, he saw a brightly lit body in the sky, moving very rapidly eastward. It was perfectly visible for at least 5 seconds, then suddenly split into several parts like the explosion of a rocket in the air. A few minutes later, he heard a loud explosion, which shook the ground very distinctly, followed shortly after by a loud rumbling, as if a tornado were passing through the forest. A strong wind arose at this moment, but subsided just as suddenly. The air was also filled with a peculiar smell, somewhat sulphurous.
The next day he found that about 2 miles from his camp, as far as he could see in every direction, a path had been cut through the forest, several rods wide --- giant trees uprooted or broken off at their base --- the tops of hills shaved off, and the ground plowed in many places. Enormous and extensive ravages are visible everywhere. Following the trace of this desolation, he quickly finds its origin by observing the shape of an immense stone sent onto the side of a mountain. An examination of this stone, or at least of its major visible part, shows that it has been divided into fragments, and that, in various places, it is marked with curious hieroglyphs. Lumley also finds other fragments of a substance resembling glass, and here and there dark spots, as if caused by a liquid. He thinks that the hieroglyphs are made by human hands, and that the stone itself, although a fragment of an immense body, must have been used for some purpose by animated entities.