104 Official Report of a Fall of Aerolites near Grenade. 



They are absolutely opaque, sour, do not stick to the tongue, 

 and do not sensibly absorb water in which they are plunged. 



Thin fragments, when exposed to the blow-pipe, became black, 

 and were covered with black globules at some points : their sur- 

 face was in this state similar to the cru-it of entire aerolites. 



The iron was in considerable quantities, being more than a 

 third of their weight : it is not however very conspicuous to the 

 naked eye, on account of the smallness of the particles; hut they 

 are evident when the specimen is rubbed or polished. The iron, 

 which is very malleable, is then spread bv the lip.rd body, and 

 forms a small scale or stud : like a piece of bri;;ht lead. This 

 metallic aspect is particularly visible at the surface on the spot 

 struck by the steel. The surfaces exposed by the lapidary's 

 wheel present, on a gray groimd, small m(>tallic sjjots, and re- 

 mind us of certain jaspers, containing dendrites of silver, which 

 are found polished in mineralogical cabinets. 



The great quantity of iron contained in these aerolites ren- 

 ders them of course very suscej.ttiblc of the magnetic influence. 

 But they exhibited no traces of polarity; and tlie pha'uomena of 

 attraction onlv, but none of repulsion, were ever exhibited. 



Olservation'i. 

 I shall hazard no conjectures, but only remark that three facts 

 conspicuously arise from the foregoing descriptions : 



1. The space or district occupied bv the aerolites of Grenade, 

 is too limiied to suppose that the point at wliich they were se- 

 parated from each other was very high above the surface of our 

 globe. They seem to have been fragments of a larC;e mass 

 which passed from N.W. to S.E., and which was broken, several 

 times perhaps, at the time of the successiA'c detonations wliich 

 were heard in the atmosphere. The strength of the latter 

 seems to indicate that they took place in a very dense medium, 

 and consequently at a small height. 



2. After their separation, the fragments of this mass must 

 have undergone a heat capable of fusing their surface : for each 

 on reaching the ground was entirely covered with a varnish, or 

 blackish coating, evidently produced by fusion. 



3. The light seen in the atmosphere seems to have been an 

 effect of the deflagrations of the aeroUtic muss; for it appeared 

 suddenly like lightning, and was followed, or rather accompanied, 

 by detonations, the interval between the light and the noise 

 being undoubtedly the mere effect of distance. This light must 

 have commenced by being very feeble, and must have gradually 

 increased afterwards, if it had been produced by the arrival of a 

 luminous meteor in our atmosphere, 



XVI 11. De- 



