* Astronomy

The Shelburne meteorite fell about three miles from Shelburne, Ontario, at 8 p. m. August 13, 1904. Two stones were obtained from the fall, one of which weighed 12.6 kg. (27 lbs.) and the other 5.6kg. (12 lbs.). The latter of these stones came into the possession of his Museum, where it is preserved under the Museum number, Me. 606.
The general phenomena of the fall and the larger stone have been described by Borgstrom** (Trans. Royal Astronomical Society of Canada, 1904, pp. 69-94). It remains to describe the smaller stone and give some additional general observations regarding the fall. The distance between the points of fall of the two stones was about three-quarters of a mile and the direction between them a southeast- northwest one, the smaller stone being at the southeast. The latter stone fell within eighteen inches of the rear porch of the residence of Mr. John Shields. The phenomena of the fall, as stated by Mr. Shields to the writer, were that sounds like a muffled drum-beat were heard by various members of the family who were in the house at the time, followed by a dull thud at the rear of the house. A man at the barn, two or three rods west of the house, also saw a momentary light. Mr. Shields' impression from the noise was that an old shed in the rear of the house, shown in Fig. 1, had fallen. He accordingly investigated to see if this were true. The shed proved to be intact, but a hole newly made was noticed in the soil near it. It was also noticed that the side of the house south of the hole was splashed .with mud. No one investigated farther at the time, but on the morning of the second day (August 15) Mr. Shields dug into the hole and at a depth of eighteen inches* found the stone here to be described. A portion of a burdock leaf, which had evidently been carried into the hole with it, lay under the stone. This showed no evidence of charring or burning.
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