[ 49 ] 



VI. Particulars of the Stvord of Meteoric Iron presented ly 

 Mr. SowERBY to the Emperor Alexander of Russia, 



JLx June 1814 Mr. Sowerby had a sword-blade hammered at a 

 low red heat, out of a slice of the nicoliferous iron from the South 

 of Africa, and supposed to be of the same meteoric origin as 

 those stony masses* which have so frequently been seen to fall 

 through the atmosphere. This blade was welded into a steel 

 htift, and mounted in steel ; it was intended to present it to the 

 Emperor of Russia while His Imperial Majesty was in England; 

 but various circumstances united to frustrate that design, and it 

 wa? forwarded to the Minister of the Interior at St. Petcrsburgh. 

 Here a fresh delay was experienced, in consequence of the dis- 

 turbed state of Europe which kept the Emperor from that city. 

 At length, however, it has been received ; and a letter, part of 

 which is copied below, was sent to Mr. Sowerby by the Minister 

 of the Interior : 



" Sir, Several circumstances have hindered for 



some time the presentation of your letter and sword to the Em- 

 peror." 



" Now, I hnve the honour to inform you, sir, that His Im- 

 perial Majesty has been pleased to read your letter, and to accept 

 your sword with particular benevolence; and, as a mark of his' 

 satisfaction, to make you a present of a ring adorned with dia- 

 monds and a large precious stonef in the middle of them." 



*' As Dr. Creighton, Physician to His Imperial Majesty, is 

 going now to England, and is so good as to take upon him the 

 delivery of this my letter and of the said ring to you, I send it 

 herewith by him. I feel at this moment a double satisfaction, 

 both for your zeal towards my gracious Sovereign, and for the re- 

 ward you have so worthily merited by it," &c. 



(Signed) " Kosodawlew. 

 " St. Petersburgh, May -V|, 1819." 



The following is a copy of the letter above referred to. 



" To His Imperial Majesty Alexander Emperor of all the Rusiias. 



" May it please Your Imperial Majesty, 

 *' Pj^rt of a mass of iron of the same nature and coelestial ori- 



• One of the first of these that excited the attention of philosophers fell in 

 Yorkshire, and is now preserved with many others in Mr. Sowerby 's museum 

 of the natural productions of (ireat JJiitain. The fullest account of this 

 stone is puhlishi;d in the second volume of IJritish Mineralojry, with »figuro. 

 It was the siglit of this stone that changed Mr. Cavcndisii's opinion, who 

 had previously considered that the story of falling stones was ill founded. 



f An emerald. 



Vol. 55. No. 201. Jan. 1820. D gm 



