132 Exhibitions. [DlC, 



2. That Captain L. Rogers, I. M. S., had been appointed Natural 

 History Secretary of the Society, vice Mr. E. P. Stebbing, resigned. 



3. That Dr. E. D. Ross had been appointed Anthropological Secre- 

 tary of the Society, vice Mr. E. H. C. Walsh, resigned. 



Mr. T. H. Holland exhibited a meteorite which fell with the me- 

 teor seen in Eastern Bengal on October 22nd. 



The stone weighs 622 grammes and is covered with a thin black 

 crust formed by the fusion of the rock during its rapid flight through 

 the air. Several stones were known to have fallen with this meteor, 

 and the complete investment with fused crust of the one exhibited shows 

 that fusion of the surface occurred after the break-up of the meteorite. 

 Besides the complete proof that the meteor resulted in an actual fall of 

 stones, special interest attaches to this occurrence on account of the 

 observations made from so many points of view, permitting Mr. Little 

 to calculate its actual path and speed. 



Mr. T. H. Holland also exhibited some crushing mills used by 

 ancient gold miners in Chota Nagpur. 



Grooved stones and ground pebbles occur by the thousand in the 

 jungles of Singhbhum district, where apparently they were used by a 

 past and unknown generation of gold miners. The rounded pebbles and 

 the larger grooved stones appear to have performed the functions res- 

 pectively of pestle and mortar, although nothing of the kind is now 

 known in use, and no tradition is known locally of the work done by the 

 people of the past. Judging by the great numbers of these stones in 

 Singhbhum, prospecting operations must have been carried on on a large 

 scale ; but, like the miners who attempted to boom this area 12 years 

 ago, the ancient workers did not apparently obtain sufficient inducement 

 to develop deep workings. 



Mr. E. Vredenburg, of the Geological Survey, exhibited speci- 

 mens of sodalite from Kishengarh, having an unexplained property of 

 changing its colour. 



The sodalite was obtained in Kishengarh, Rajputana, with the 

 comparatively rare group of rocks known as eleolite-syenites. Besides 

 the deep-blue and usual variety of sodalite, one form when freshly 

 broken has a carmine colour. The carmine colour, for some unexplain- 

 ed reason, disappears after a few seconds' exposure to direct sunlight, or 

 after a few minutes in a bright electric light, recovering its colour again 

 when kept in darkness for about a fortnight. Whilst the fading of 

 coloured minerals is rare, the recovery of colour in this way is without 



