METEORITES FOUND IN SEAMS OF COAL. 309 



the occurrence of any. Descriptions will now be given of the 

 stones in my possession. 



THE PENDLETON SPECIMEN. 



This was found by Mr. Andrew Ray, the intelligent mana- 

 ger of the colliery of the Pendleton Coal Company, in the 

 year 1839, in sinking the new pit there. It was met with in 

 the middle of the 6-feet seam of coal, at a depth of 245 yards 

 from the surface. Mr. Ray, thinking it a great curiosity, 

 brought it to me. At first I did not pay much attention to 

 the specimen, thinking it was merely some boulder stone 

 which had been squeezed into the coal from the great Irwell 

 fault, which is not more than about 50 yards from the place 

 where the specimen was found. On more careful examina- 

 tion, the external characters as well as the composition of 

 the stone, however, soon led me to consider it unlike any 

 stone that ever previously came under my notice. This 

 specimen is composed of a crystalline quartzose stone of a 

 light gray, with mottled marks of a black colour, and con- 

 taining small crystals of sulphuret of iron dispersed through 

 the body of the stone. Its outside is moderately smooth, 

 with traces of slickenside, as if it had been subjected to con- 

 siderable pressure. The colour is dark black, with a slight 

 polish on the stone, and some portions of a substance like 

 the pulverulent carbonaceous matter, so commonly found in 

 coals adhering to it. The black coating is a remarkably 

 thin one on the outside of the stone, without penetrating 

 scarcely at all into it. 



Fig. 1. 



Its form (see fig. 1) is that of 

 g, an irregularly compressed oval, 

 fe having one of its ends a little 

 g" pointed, 5 inches in length by 

 ^^^^ 3:^ inches in breadth. It has a 

 specific gravity of 2*58, and weighed about 2f lbs. avoirdu- 



