On a Meteoric Paper composed of Conferva? §• Infusoria. 185 



question — he further mentioned that some of the perch were found 

 as far as fifteen yards from the edge of the lake. 



Benjamin J. Clarke, Esq. of Merrion Square, Dublin, in a letter to 

 a friend here, states 'that at La Bergerie in Queen's county, where 

 he was on the 7th of January, he found lying under the branches of 

 an ash- tree which had been blown down, two of the large titmice 

 (Paras major) ; and that in Dublin he saw a specimen of the pere- 

 grine falcon (Falco peregrinus) that met with its death on the same 

 occasion. 



From a newspaper report of the devastation committed by the 

 hurricane at Downhill, in the county of Londonderry, it appeared 

 that a slab blown from the mausoleum, cut completely in two a poor 

 hare that was sheltering beneath it. Thus far only have I heard of 

 the effects of this terrific night upon the lower animals. 



Belfast, March 5, 1839. 



XXIII. — On a Meteoric Paper which fell from the Sky in the 

 year 1686 m Courland, composed of Confervae and Infusoria. 

 By Prof. Ehrexberg of Berlin*. 



On the 31st January 1687, a great mass of a paper-like black 

 substance fell with a violent snow-storm from the atmosphere 

 near the village of Rauden in Courland ; it was seen to fall, and 

 after dinner was found at places where the labourers at work 

 had seen nothing similar before dinner. This meteoric sub- 

 stance^ described completely and figured in 1686, 1688, was 

 recently again considered by M. v. Grotthus, after a chemical 

 analysis, to be a meteoric mass ; but M. v. Berzelius, who also 

 analysed it, could not discover the nickel said to be contained 

 in it ; and Von Grotthus then revoked his opinion. It is men- 

 tioned in Chladni's work on Meteors, and noticed as an aero- 

 phyte in Neesvon Esenbeck's valuable Appendix to R. Brown's 

 c Botan. Schriften.' I examined this substance, some of which 

 is contained in the Berlin Museum (also in Chladni's collec- 

 tion) microscopically. I found the whole to consist evidently 

 of a compactly matted mass of Conferva crispata, traces of a 

 Nostoc, and of about twenty-nine well-preserved species of 



* Translated from the Berichte der Academic der Wissenschaften zu 

 Berlin, 1838. 



