Marriner. — The Mokoia Aerolite. Ill 



trying to imitate thunder by sliaking a sheet of metal. Colonel Logan, 

 who was stationed at Wanganui at the time, made all the sentries who were 

 on duty that night report themselves to him next day. Mr. Field, who was 

 acting-editor of one of the new^spapers, was asked to be present. All the 

 sentries except one stated that a very brilliant meteor came out of a thick 

 bank of clouds off the mouth of the river and passed overhead northwards, 

 and then exploded. The remaining sentry saw the meteor, but said that it 

 travelled in an opposite direction. 



The Wairarapa Meteorite. 



It was not till 1864 that the first specimen was discovered, by Mr. Richard 

 Collins, at Tohirua, near Masterton, in the Wairarapa Valley, North Island. 



In the Geological Magazine the followang short account is published : 

 " I have to thank Dr. Hector, F.R.S., Director of the Geological Survey 

 of New Zealand, for a short account of the only meteorite which has yet 

 been found in that colony, and which is preserved in the Colonial Museum 

 at Wellington.* It is in the form of an irregular six-sided pyramid, 7 in. 

 high and 6 in. across the base ; the edges are rounded, and the sides slightly 

 convex and indented with shallow pits. The capacity of the stone is 

 49 cubic inches ; the weight, 480 oz. ; and the specific gravity is 3-254 ; 

 the hardness, 5-6. It is strongly magnetic, but exhibits no decided polarity. 

 The surface is of a hght rusty-brown colour, and is stained with exuda- 

 tions of iron chloride and sulphate. A freshly fractured surface is dark 

 grey mottled with a bright metal-Uke particle of what may be iron-mono- 

 sulphide. By treatment with copper-sulphate the presence of what may be 

 iron in the form of metal was determined ; with hydrochloric acid sul- 

 phuretted hydrogen was evolved, sulphur set free, and a large quantity of 

 gelatinous siUcic acid separated. The insoluble portion, consisting of 

 siUca and insoluble silicates, constituted 56 per cent, of the stone. In the 

 soluble portion the predominating ingredients were iron (amounting to 

 24-01 per cent.) and magnesia, along with nickel, manganese, and soda ; alu- 

 mina and chromium are not present. These reactions so far indicate in the 

 New Zealand meteorite the presence of olivine and an insoluble silicate, 

 in addition to nickel iron and what may be trioUte or magnetic pyrites." 



There is also a similar account in the Juror's Report of the New Zealand 

 Exhibition of 1865 ; it runs as follows : " An interesting form of iron ex- 

 hibited was a rusty-looking mineral, weighing about half a pound, being a 

 portion of a meteorite found in the Wairarapa Valley, in the Province of 

 Wellington. It was not thought necessary to make a complete analysis 

 of this mineral, but only sufficient to prove the similarity of its composition 

 with that of other meteoric stones generally. The external surface of this 

 mineral was of a rusty-red colour, in parts covered with exudations of chloride 

 of iron, with a little sulphate. Freshly fractured, it showed a dark-grey 

 colour, mottled over with bright metallic-looking particles (most probably 

 protosulphide of iron). The shape of the mass is an irregular pyramid 

 with rounded edges, measuring as follows : Height, 7 in. ; length of base, 

 7 in. ; breadth of base, 6 in. ; contents, 49 cubic inches ; weight, 9J lb. 

 The surface was broken by rounded indentations never exceeding ^ in. 

 in depth, evidently produced by w^eathering. No distinct cleavage was 



* The stoue was only deposited in the Museum. It is now in the possession of Mr. 

 W. G. Mantell, of Wellington, to whom it belongs. 



