* 
Meteoric Stones. 7 . 95 
the most probable. To get an idea of the elements of another 
_ planetary body, were it only the one lying nearest us, the moon, 
gives to such an examination an interest which in itself it would 
be destitute of. 
The general results of my investigations have been, that me- 
teoric stones of two sorts have fallen on the earth. Those which 
belong to the same kind, have a like composition and appear to 
come from the same mountain. The one sort is rare. Hitherto 
there have not been observed more than three meteoric stones 
belonging to it, which fell in Stannern in Moravia, in Jonzac 
and Juvenas in France. They are thus characterized; they 
do not contain metallic iron, the minerals of which they are 
composed are more distinctly crystalline, and magnesia is not 
4 prevailing element of them. Of these-I have not had any spe- 
cimen to examine. ‘The other sort is made up of the great num- 
ber of meteoric stones, which have been hitherto examined. They 
ate frequently so like one another in color and external appear- 
anee, that we might believe them to have been struck out of one 
Plece. They contain malleable metallic iron in variable quan- 
lity. We have an example of an enormous block, which was 
constituted of a mere continuous web of iron, the cavities of © 
_ Which the mineral fill up, and which came down whole in the 
fall, Solely because the iron-web held them together. Some are 
Composed more of the mineral and less of iron, in which case 
they do not cohere, but burst apart from the heat, which the ex- 
tteme compression of the atmosphere by means of their irresisti- 
ble Velocity, moving with the rapidity of a heavenly body to- 
Wards the earth, has produced in the few moments they are pass- 
Ng through the air, and from which their outermost covering is 
Continually melted to a black slag thinner than the thinnest post- 
pn: We may say then, that the meteoric stones supposed to 
Proceed from the moon, come entirely from two unlike voleanos, 
the eruptions of one of which either take place oftener than the 
other, or are projected in such a direction as that they oftener reach 
earth. “Such a circumstance agrees well with the fact, that a 
Certain part of the moon has the earth continually in the zenith 
and directs al] its projectiles straight towards the earth, though 
mey do not proceed straight thither, because they must also suf- 
st the motion, which they had before as parts of the moon. If 
"1s the part of the moon which sends to us the meteoric iron 
