* Astronomy

On the 2nd December, 1880, a meteoric fall took place at Andhára in the Muzaffarpur district, Bengal, which seems to have escaped notice on the part of students of meteorites. An account of it was given at the time by Major-General A. Cunningham in the Archaeological Survey of India Reports, Vol. XVI, pages 32-34 (1883), and as this publication is not generally accessible in geological libraries, I have thought it desirable to reproduce here Cunningham's account of this fall. Some notes on this fall were also given by Mr. H. B. W. Garrick, who brought this fall to my notice, on pages 98 and 99 of the above-cited volume ; but as they do not contain anything not in Cunningham's report, they are not repeated here.

Andhira or U jyan is a small village on the bank of the Parewa, or Parwâ Nala, on the bed of the Bâgmati, 4 miles to the west of Sitâmarhi, and 30 miles to the north of Muzaffarpur. Here, on the amâvasi of Agrahan (the conjunction or new moon of Agrahayan - 2nd December, 1880) at 4 o'clock in the afternoon, a sound like that of a gun was heard, and two Brahmans of the village saw a dark ball fall in a field to the south-west of the village. It is described as having come down almost perpendicularly, but the sound was heard in the west, and a small cloud of dust rose up where it struck the ground. On picking it up it was quite warm and appeared to be white, but it was only covered with dust, and on washing it, its colour became quite black. I heard of its fall a few days afterwards when on my way to Muzaffarpur, and I visited the place on the 30th December

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