considered Geographically j Statistically, and Cosmically. 453 



viz. thirty-four ; while only one has been found in France, and but 

 one in Great Britain. 



In Mexico eight meteoric irons have been discovered and described, 

 but there is no recorded or historic instance of a stone fall ; yet in 

 the United States there have been seventeen falls of stones this 

 century, and one observed iron fall. 



There is no accounting for these apparent irregularities ; possibly 

 several of the Mexican and United States iron meteoric masses have 

 been the result or produce of one shower or explosion. 



The proportion of stone to iron falls may be taken at 25 to 1, 

 i. e. 96 per cent, of all that fall consist of stony matter; so that for 

 the thirty-four iron masses found in the United States there may 

 have been 34 x 96 = 3264 stone falls. 



Note II. p. 334. — It is remarkable, that while December has only 

 nine falls recorded,/!;^ out of these should have occurred on the 13th 

 of the month, and one on the 14th. Five fell within the space of only 

 twelve years, and two fell on the 13th December 1803, at two distinct 

 localities. 



In looking through Prof. Powell's * Catalogues of Luminous Me- 

 teors,' and various journals, there are described only two meteors 

 and two small falling stars for any 13th day of December. 



Note III. p. 336. — Professor Cappocci of Naples, in a letter to 

 M. Arago (given in the Comptes Rendus for August 1840), endea- 

 vours, though I think not very successfully, to establish, not only a 

 coincidence in the fall of aerolites and luminous meteors for the 16th 

 and 17th of July, but assigns to them a regular recurring period 

 of five years, and concludes by supposing that they are " the result 

 of an aggregation of cosmical atoms dispersed in space; atoms which 

 are constrained to unite themselves by contrary poles in consequence 

 of magnetic attraction." And he seems to consider comets, aurora 

 boreales, meteors and aerolites as various resultants from bands or 

 currents of nebulous matter, existing in planetary space, in a state 

 of magnetism more or less intense. 



Note IV. p. 336. — It can hardly be imagined that the small frag- 

 ments and atoms which usually constitute aerolites can have any 

 luminosity, whether reflected or inherent. It is possible, however, 

 they may form the more solid part or nucleus of larger and less 

 solidified bodies. That ordinary faUing stars, and more particularly 

 the luminous meteors observable in the great periodic displays of 

 August and November, are self-luminous can hardly admit of doubt. 

 It may be mentionod that Pallas has probably irregular and angular 

 surfaces, like the majority of meteoric stones, and that Ceres is ap- 

 parently surrounded with a very dense atmosphere ; a circumstance 

 perhaps also sometimes the case, on a far smaller scale, with meteor- 

 olithic fire-balls. Respecting the cause of the supposed breaking up 

 of a planet between Mars and Jupiter, Mr. Nasmyth, at a recent 



