1864. } Mining, Mineralogy, and Metallurgy. 151 
notices were commenced in No. 165 of the ‘Philosophical Magazine,’ 
by a paper ‘on Aérolites,’ which included notices of a fall of stones at 
Butsura, in India, in May, 1861. Their more recent paper contains 
an account of two other meteorites. One of these stones fell at Khira- 
gurh, 28 miles’ south-east of Bhurtpoor, on the 28th March, 1860. 
Another—of which a more detailed account is given—fell on the 
16th August, 1843, at Manegaum, in the collectorate of Khandeish, 
in India. 
Of the Manegaum stone, some fragments, amounting only to 
2% ounces, have been preserved in the collection of the Asiatic Society 
of Bengal, at Calcutta,* and a specimen is deposited in the British 
Museum. The evidence of the fall of this stone is given in the 
following words :— 
“wo villagers described the fall as having been witnessed by 
them. There had been several claps of thunder with lightning some 
two hours previously, and the northern heavens were heavily charged 
with clouds; but no rain had fallen for eight days before, nor did any 
fall for four days after, the event. Their attention was arrested by 
‘several heavy claps of thunder and lightning,’ and they ran out of 
a shed to look around, when they saw the aérolite fall in a slanting 
direction from north to south ‘ preceded by a flash of lightning.’ 
It buried itself 5 inches in the ground, and appeared as a mass of 
about 15 inches long, and 5 inches diameter. It exhibited a black 
vitreous exterior, and was of a greyish yellow inside. At first, the 
observers stated it to have been (as is recorded of the Bokkeveldt 
aérolite) comparatively plastic, and at any rate to have become more 
hard and compact subsequently. There was only one stone seen, and 
that was smashed to pieces. Another witness mentioned that the 
stone was at first cool, but in a short time became rather warm.” 
The evidence which is being accumulated by Shepard, Haidinger, and 
others, added to the chemical and physical examinations to which 
these aérolites have been subjected, by Rose, Maskelyne, and Lang, is 
advancing our knowledge of the peculiarities which belong to those 
remarkable bodies. The chemical constitution and the lthological 
characteristics of a peculiar class of stones, appear to prove their 
meteoric origin. It must, at the same time, be evident to all, that 
the utmost caution is necessary in examining all the evidence brought 
forward as descriptive of the phenomena accompanying the fall of 
stones through the atmosphere—and that, especially, which has led to 
the assumption that certain physical and chemical peculiarities are 
characteristic of, and unmistakably indicate, a true meteoric origin. 
Dr. C. T. Jackson, of Boston, U.S., gives us some interesting 
particulars of a mass of Meteoric Iron from the Dakota Indian terri- 
tory. It was found on the surface of the ground, 90 miles from any 
road or dwelling, and from its presenting a bright surface when cut, 
it was thought to be silver. A portion of about 10 lbs. weight was 
broken from the original mass, which weighed about 100 lbs. This 
* «Proceedings of the Asiatic Society of Bengal’ for 1844 contains the first 
account of this aérolite. 
