aerolites weighing 12 pounds is preserved in Bologna. In the same year, one fell in the province of Irkutsk, in Siberia; and on October 14. same year, one preserved in Prague, descended near Lebrak, in Bohemia. One fell at Nanjemoy, in Maryland, North America, on the 10th of February 1825, a little after noon, with a loud explosion and a whizzing noise. It entered the ground to the depth of about eighteen inches, and weighed 16 pounds 7 ounces; it was sensibly warm, and had a strong sulphureous smell. A fragment, weighing about 4 pounds, was sent to Professor Silliman by Dr S. Carver, and analysed by Mr Chilton. The surface was covered with a black vitreous coating, divided into polygons resembling honeycomb; its specific gravity equalled 3.66. On the 27th September 1825, one fell in the Sandwich Islands. In 1826, stones fell in Georgia, causing the death of several persons." Several meteorolites fell on the 27th February 1827, in the district of Azim Gerh, in India; chrome and nickel were detected, and the specific gravity of the meteorolite examined was 3.5.6 On the 8th of October same year, several fell from a black cloud at Belostok, about 10 A. M.-a rumbling noise attended, and one of the aerolites picked up weighed 4 pounds. In July 1829, Alika, an Indian, was killed by an aërolite." On the 15th February 1830, at 7.5 P. M., one fell at Launton in Oxfordshire, entering the ground obliquely from the N.E.; it weighed 2 pounds 5 ounces. This meteorolite was accompanied by a bolis and a triple explosion, which was heard at the distance of four miles; the day had been foggy, with a north wind; the temperature at 10 A. M. and 10 P. M. was 43° and 26° F. respectively, and the barometer, at the same hours, so high as 30.9 and 30.8 inches. The stone was friable, interspersed with slender veins of iron, and granular metallic particles, highly magnetic, and had a ferruginous crust. At the close of 1833, some meteoric stones were found at 1 Diario di Roma; Bullet. des Sciences. 2 Silliman's Amer. Jour. June 1825; Ann. of Philos. xxvi. 186. 3 Ann. of Philos. xxvii. p. 149. Silliman's Amer. Jour. vol. xlix. p. 407; Jameson's Edin. New Philos. Jour. 1846, vol. xl. p. 204. Athen. 1836, p. 803. Edin. Jour. of Sc. ix. 172. 7 Ib. Blansko, in Moravia,-a few nights previously, a very luminous meteor appeared, accompanied by a noise like thunder.' Several fell during a lunar eclipse, on December 10. 1834, at Marsala and its environs; they were as large as walnuts, spherical, dense, and yellowish. The preceding day was tranquil, and the night was one of exquisite beauty; suddenly a dark spot appeared in the north, which increased quickly; immediately there blew a violent wind, accompanied by thunder and rain-the houses were shaken-the sea roared-and the people were filled with terror; excessive cold followed." Upon the 11th December 1836, about 9 P. M., several fell in Brazil, in a line extending more than ten leagues; they were preceded by a fire-ball of great size and brilliancy, which burst with a loud crackling noise over Macao, at the entrance of the Rio Assu. They fell through the roofs of several houses, deep into the ground, killing and maiming a few oxen; those found in the sand weighed from 1 to 80 pounds.3 On the 15th April 1837, one which weighed above 6 ounces, was found in Austria. A curious earthy meteorolite fell in 1839, at the Cape of Good Hope: this anomalous body afforded Professor Powell' a new instance of a non-metallic substance possessing the property of elliptic polarization of light by reflexion. One fell from a bolis in a bright starlight night in October 1840, in Concord, New Hampshire; it descended about two hours after sunset. Its surface was glazed with greyish-white enamel, and shewed signs of intense heat; the composition was peculiar, and resembled that of the Bishopville meteorolite in South Carolina which Professor Shepard designated chladnite. On August 10. 1841, about 9.5 P. M. an immense number of minute stones fell at Iwan from west to east, at an angle of 45°; their colour was blackish-brown externally, and light brown within; they were spheroidal, with many irregularities." Thousands of meteoric bodies fell in September 1841, in 1 Athen. 1834, p. 36. 2 Giornal della Due Sicilie, Jan. 14. 1835. 3 Pog. Annal.; Ed. Jour. Nat. Hist. Sept. 1838, p. 160; Athen. 1837, p. 915. P. 381. 7 Hungary, most of which were not larger than hailstones. On the 16th of September 1843, some descended from a clear sky, with a loud noise, at Klein wenden near Mühlhausen. On the 8th of May 1846, meteoric stones fell at Ancona. One fell on December 25. same year, near Mindethal, Bavaria ; at 2 P. M. a noise like distant thunder was heard over a circle of eighteen leagues,-after many nearly uniform discharges, the noise changed to a rumbling sound which lasted about three minutes, and was heard overhead by all observers in that extensive district. A black ball was seen descending at the village of Schonenburg, to the west of Mindthal, and a sulphureous odour was perceived, the meteoric stone fell in a garden there, and buried itself two feet below the surface; it was an irregular truncated pyramid, with four narrow lateral surfaces, and a fifth somewhat wider, the base was smooth. It weighed nearly 8 kilogrammes, and looked like greenstone with crystals upon its surface, especially some octohedral crystals of iron. One fell at 3 P. M. on the 25th February 1847, nine miles south of Marion, Linn Co. Iowa, attended by an explosion which was heard forty miles off; it weighed 42 pounds; snow covered the ground at the time.3 On the 19th March 1847, about 2 A. M., a bolis appeared in the east off the coast of Aberdeenshire, which grew in brightness till its effulgence equalled the full moon,-it burst with a perceptible noise, near the ocean: this was doubtless the fall of a meteorite. In July same year, one resembling cast-iron fell at Braunau, with a loud noise; a splendid bolis was seen the same day at Carlsbad. 333. It is mentioned by Mrs Somerville,' that "the volume of several meteoric stones has exceeded that of the planet Ceres, which is about seventy miles in diameter. One which passed within twenty-five miles of us, was estimated to weigh about 600,000 tons, and to move with a velocity of about twenty miles in a second,-a fragment of it alone reached the earth." Altogether, upwards of two hundred falls have been recorded 'Augsburg Gazette. 2 A kilogr.=15433 Eng. grains. Silliman's Jour. N. S. No. 11, p. 288. 2 by Chladni,' Van Hoff, and others, but many meteorolites must escape our observation, finding a resting-place on uninhabited wastes, and mingling with "the treasures of the deep." 334. Besides these, masses of Native Iron3 have been observed to fall from the atmosphere, and others have been found in situations which render it in the highest degree probable that they have had a similar origin. The date of the "thunderbolt" which fell before the Christian era, from which the sword of Antar' was forged, is uncertain. The Parian Marbles mention the descent of a mass of iron on Mount Ida, in Crete, in the year 1168 A. c.; and Pliny records the descent of spongy iron in Lucania, about the year 52. Avicenna affirms that he saw a mass of iron fall in the year 1009 of the Christian era, in Djordjam; and Fabricius mentions the fall of iron in 1164, during the feast of Pentecost. In 1368, a mass of iron fell in the Duchy of Oldenburg; about 1545, a mass fell in the forest of Naunhoff, between Leipsic and Grimma, in Saxony; and in 1618, a metallic mass fell in Bohemia. A remarkable mass, described by Colonel Kirkpatrick, and recorded in the memoirs of the Emperor Jehangire, is said to have fallen on the 17th April 1620, in the purgunnah of Jalindher. Its descent was accompanied by a luminous appearance and terrific noise; the ground for many feet where it fell was burned up, and the iron was found to be hot when dug out,-it weighed 160 tolahs, or 60 troy ounces. This mass was not malleable till mixed with common iron, but two sabres, a knife, and dagger were made from it. On the evening of the 26th May 1751, when the sky was clear, a bolis shot across the sky from W. to E. with a hollow sound, near See Chladni,-Ueber Feuer-Meteore, und über die mit denselben herabgefallenen massen. Vien. 1819; Gilbert's Aunalen der Physik; Jour. de Phys. Oct. 1818; Annals of Philos. vol. xxviii. 2 Poggend. Annalen. Fer natif meteorique,- Hay; Gediegen Eisen, Werner; Octaedrisches Fisen,--Mohs; Terrestrial native iron,-Jameson. 4 Antar,-Hamilton, 152; Quart. Rev. xxi. 225. P. Albinus,--Chron. of Mines of Misnia. 5 I. 22. Hradschina, in Agram, Croatia; it exploded loudly, emitted smoke, and dropped two masses of iron in the shape of chains welded together. A short time ago, meteoric iron was found in Germany, lying about four feet below the surface of the ground. Stromeyer' who analysed it found, besides nickel and cobalt, a considerable quantity of the very rare metal molybdenum, and in addition, arsenic, capillary copper and variegated copper-ore, besides a trace of sulphuret of silver. The composition of this mass is thus anomalous, and differs but slightly from another mass from the Hartz Mountains examined by the same chemist. One of the most celebrated masses of native iron was found by Pallas' on the summit of a mountain between Abakansk and Belskoiostrog, on the river Jenisey, in Siberia. It was seen first by Medvedief, who in 1750 discovered a rich vein of iron-ore traversing compact hornstone about 150 yards to the east; it was reposing on the ridge of the elevation without adhering to the rock, in the midst of fir-trees. It is of a spongy texture and cellular, the cavities being filled with a different mineral, flexible and malleable, but upon being fused, brittle; it weighed 1680 pounds Russian.3 The Tartars report that it fell from heaven, and they hold it in great veneration. In 1749 this mass was removed to the adjoining town Krasnojorsk, and in 1772 to the Imperial Academy of Sciences at St Petersburg. Don Rubin de Celis describes a mass found at Otumpa, in the Viceroyalty of Peru, about 500 miles N. W. of Buenos Ayres, which weighed 15 tons. "It was nearly imbedded in white clay, and the country round it was quite flat and without water." Doubts have been hazarded that this mass is not of meteoric origin, nevertheless 10% of nickel enters into its composition, but merely the outcropping of a rich vein of iron-ore. This mass is probably identical with a large specimen in the British Museum. In the year 6 Phil. Mag. No. 118; Roy. Soc. Göttingen. Phil. Tr. 1776, p. 523; Voy. de Pallas, tom. iv. p. 545. Paris 1793. 3 A pound Russ. = 0.90264 lbs. avoird. Chladni on the Siber. Mass of Iron, 1794. 5 Phil. Tr. 1788. vol. lxxviii. p. 37,-Spanish. B Phillips, -Mineralogy, 3d ed. 1823, p. 215; Phil. Trans. 1786. |