ANNALS 



OF THE 



SOUTH AFKICAN MUSEUM, 



PAET I. 



1. — On the Meteoric Stone which fell at the Mission Station of St. 

 Mark's,-''- Transkei, on January 3, 1903. — By Pbof. E. Cohen, 

 of Grcifsivalcl. 



[Note. — The first portion of this paper was completed before the lamented death 

 of the author, on April 12, 1905. I am deeply indebted to Prof. E. Klein, of 

 Berlin, for kindly completing for publication the notes on chemical and microscopic 

 characters contained in the second part of this paper ; also to Mr. W. Spilhaus, 

 of Cape Town, for making the translation from the German original MSS. — 

 W. L. S.] 



Part I. — General Characters. 



This stone was presented to the South African Museum by Arch- 

 deacon Coakes, and was entrusted to me for examination and 

 description by Mr. W. L. Sclater, the Director of the Museum. 



The account of the fall, sent by Mr. Sclater, takes the form of a 

 sworn statement, dated St. Mark's, Cofimvaba, January 5, 1903, by 

 Zwelibanzi, the native who witnessed the occurrence, and another 

 by Mr. Arthur Gladwin, the Eesident Magistrate, who conducted the 

 inquiry on the spot on behalf of the Cape Government. 



ZwelibanTii's statement is as follows : "I am the son of Zanazo, 

 and live at St. Mark's under Headman Dlakana in this district. On 

 Saturday last I and other boys went to a dance at Dlakana's Kraal, 

 St. Mark's, and on the way to Dlakana we called at May's Kraal. I 

 sat down near the door. Suddenly I saw a great light shine outside, 

 and immediately it went out I went outside, and heard four great 

 reports, in quick succession, followed by a rumbling noise. Then 

 something fell down, with a great thud, on the ground, in a recently 

 cultivated land of Jacob Lwana. I took particular note of the spot, 

 which was about 250 yards away from where I was, and in the morning 

 I and another boy went to the spot and found it easily, without any 

 difficulty. We found a black stone on the ground. There was a 

 hole in the ground beside it about 2 feet deep. Apparently the stone 

 * St. Mark's is situated 32° 3 S. and 27° 16 E. of Greenwich, 

 1 



