Maeriner. — The Mokoia Aerolite. 179 



Fenton, a student of the Dunedin University School of Mines, was sent to 

 Invercargill, where the party assembled, to instruct those of the men who 

 desired it in rough assaying for gold and the use of the blowpipe. On the 

 occasion of one of his lectures he received from a Mr. Arch. Marshall, for 

 examination, a piece of stone which, from its weight and appearance, was 

 supposed to be something out of the common. Mr. Fenton made a rough 

 qualitative analysis of a sample of the stone, and on finding strong reactions 

 for nickel thought it of sufficient interest to preserve the several small 

 fragments remaining of the piece received from Marshall and to bring them 

 with him to Dunedin, where he placed them at my free disposal. One of 

 these fragments I devoted to the preparation of a number of thin sections 

 sliced in different ways, and the microscopic examination of these convinced 

 me at once of the meteoric character of the stone. After this I made every 

 endeavour, by correspondence and ultimately travelling to Invercargill, 

 to ascertain the exact locality where and under what circumstances the 

 stone was found, and to obtain more of it if possible, for the surface outlines 

 of the remaining fragments clearly indicated that it must originally have 

 been of considerable size. The results of my investigations in these direc- 

 tions are the following : In the year 1879, at the completion of the connec- 

 tion of the railway-line Invercargill- Winton and the branch line Makariwa 

 [MakarewaJ-Riverton, two workmen, the brothers Arch, and I. Marshall, 

 while engaged in removing a clay bank at Makariwa Junction, found in the 

 clay, about 2\ ft. from the surface, a roundish stone which at once at- 

 tracted their attention on account of its weight and because of the fact 

 that in the clay-covered plain surrounding Makariwa Jimction stones of any 

 kind are a great rarity. They broke the stone with the pick, and, finding 

 the inside of different aspect from the outside, took the fragments home, 

 and, experimenting with them, discovered that they affected the magnetic 

 needle. With the intention of having the stone some day further examined, 

 the pieces were kept as curiosities ; but, being unsightly, they were kicked 

 from one corner of the room into another, and specimens were occasionally 

 knocked of? for friends interested in the find. Mr. Arch. Marshall, who gave 

 me these particulars, told me, on further inquiry, that the stone when 

 originally found had a knobby, roundish shape, was of the size of a large 

 man's fist or perhaps a little larger, and might have weighed between -4 lb. 

 and 5 lb. The exact place of the find was about half-way between the 

 railway - station on the Winton line and the Stationmaster's house, some 

 20 ft. from the line of rails. A search by Mr. Marshall for another piece 

 of the stone, which he thought was still somewhere about the premises at 

 the time he gave the one to Mr. Fenton, proved, unfortunately, unsuccessful, 

 and the only secured pieces of this meteorite are the two pieces sent with 

 this paper and another small piece divided between the Dunedin and Wel- 

 lington Museums. The specific gravity of the stone, determined from 

 several small fragments, varied between 3-31 and 3-54 ; the variation is no 

 doubt due to the unequal distribution of the metallic particles." A very 

 thorough analysis of this stone was made by Mr. J. L. Fletcher, M.A., F.R.S., 

 Keeper of Minerals in the British Museum. 



In 1905 another meteor was seen and heard at W^anganui, and I am 

 indebted to Mr. J. T. Ward, Director of the Wanganui Observatory, for the 

 following description : " The meteor train of 1905, June, 10 days 5 hours 

 30 minutes : The streak only was seen by myself, but others heard the 

 report also elsewhere. When first seen the track was plainly visible as a 



