Sir K. I. Murchisou on a supposed Aerolite. 385 



In dividing the tree, the saw was stopped at about 8 inches from 

 the surface on one side (or the breadth of a large saw) by a very 

 hard, impenetrable substance, which was supposed to be a nail, and 

 hence Mr. Poole resolved to break up the portion of the wood he 

 had previously condemned as of inferior quality, and hewing it down 

 from the sides he uncovered, to his astonishment, the great lump of 

 metalliferous matter, as now seen. Attaching little value to it, 

 much of the surrounding wood was thrown away or used up before 

 the specimen was brought to Jermyn Street ; but enough has been 

 obtained to throw light on the probable or possible origin of the 

 included mass. 



On interrogating Henry Shailer, a market gardener, who has long 

 lived on the spot and managed the ground where the tree grew, 

 when it was part of the garden of the former clergyman (Mr. Wed- 

 dell), 1 learnt from him that he had known the spot for sixty years, 

 that in his days of boyhood it was a fellmonger's yard, before it was 

 attached to the garden. He had observed that the tree was blighted 

 in one of its main branches for many years, and had always sup- 

 jiosed that it was struck by lightning in one of two storms, the 

 first of which happened about 1838 or 1839, the other about nine 

 years ago. 



So far the evidence obtained might be supposed to favour the 

 theorj' that this ferruginous mass* had been discharged near to the 

 blighted branch, and had penetrated downwards into the tree, to the 

 position in which we now see it, charring and warping the wood 

 immediately around it in its downward progress ; whilst in the six- 

 teen j-ears which have elapsed, the wood renovating itself, produced 

 the appearance which has so much interested the eminent botanists 

 who have examined it, viz. Mr. R. Brown, Dr. Lindley, Professor 

 Henfrey, Dr. J. Hooker, and Mr. Bennett. 



On the other hand, I must now point out some features of this 

 extraordinary case which check the belief in the included mass being 

 a meteorite. 



We found lying near the root of the tree two fragments, one of 

 wliich is similar to the substance included in the tree, while the 

 other is decidedly an iron slag. On bringing these fragments, 

 weighing several pounds, to Jermyn Street, and on breaking one of 

 them, it was found, like the supposed meteorite, to contain certain 

 small jjortions of metallic iron, in which both nickel and cobalt were 

 also present ; and hence the scepticism which had prevailed from 

 the beginning of the inquiry in the minds of some of my friends, 

 was worked up into a definite shape. 



The occurrence of stones enclosed in wood is not a novel pheno- 

 menon. Mr. Robert Brown has called my attention to two cases 

 as recorded in the following works : — 



" De Lapide in trunco Betulse reperto. G.F.Richter in Acta Phys. 

 Med. Acad. Nat. Curios, volume 3, page 66 f." 



* Thu ferruginous mass is, it is supposed, about thirty pounds in \veijjht; but as 

 (inr of its extremities is still imbedded in the wood, tlie precise wcigiit cannot be 

 statfil. 



t " Lapis pricdurus subalbicaas et mniiifcste siliceus pruui fermc aut juglaudis 



