330 Professor Deivar [1885-6. 



Police Battalion Lines, was ascertained to have been when entire, 

 one foot in diameter, but it was broken into several fragments. 



I was at the time, reading wdth my Moonshi in my study, and 

 heard an extraordinary noise like that of thunder at a short distance. 

 There could be no doubt that it was near, and I immediately supposed 

 it was something else than thunder. The steady rattling noise which 

 appeared to be travelling in a horizontal direction gradually increased 

 to one tremendous majestic clap ; after which the former steady 

 rattling noise continued perhaps for a minute, till at last it died off 

 very gradually. The noise appeared to be so low that I thought a 

 volcano or something like it would immediately appear somewhere 

 in our valley. A servant of mine happened just to return from the 

 Post Office, and told me that above the hill on which our house is 

 situate he had seen a fire travelling towards Dhurmsala, till at last it 

 disappeared. The sky was cloudy, yet there were no such clouds as 

 w'ould justify the opinion that lightning and thunder had issued 

 from them. 



Chemical Analysis of a Meteoric Stone from BJiurmsala. 

 By Br. C. T. Jackson. 



The most curious fact alleged in the report is, that the pieces, 

 which were picked up immediately after they fell, when held in the 

 hand for half-a-minute, were so cold as to benumb the fingers, and 

 this is mentioned as very remarkable, since a few moments before the 

 surface of the meteorite was in a state of ignition, and still bears 

 evident marks of partial fusion. 



The temperature of the day was 80° F., and the cold could not 

 have been occasioned by the soil in that climate. Indeed, the 

 temperature required to produce the effect alleged must have been 

 far bulow zero. 



Now, supposing the fact to be true, that it was intense cold that 

 was produced by the stone, may it not have been owing to the low 

 temperature of the region from which the meteorite fell? the 

 interplanetary spaces, according to Baron Fourier's estimate, being 

 about — 50° Centigrade, or nearly 100° Fahr. below freezing point. 



Allowing that the meteoric mass came from those regions, the 

 matter being a very slow conductor of heat, we can easily conceive 

 that when the mass entered the earth's atmosphere, it might become 

 heated and inflamed on the surface by condensing the air before it, 

 in its descent towards the earth ; and since it would have to fall 

 through about eighty miles of the atmosphere, the density of which 

 increases as it approaches the earth, the inflammation would take 

 place only where the air had sufficient density, and not in the highest 

 regions. Such being the case, the expansion of the exterior of the 

 meteorite, the surface being incandescent, while the interior was very 

 cold, would cause the mass to fly to pieces with violent detonations, 

 and this, too, quite near to the earth. 



