340 HISTORY or 



the East Indies, and in other places, have all 

 such a perfect resemblance, that it is almost 

 impossible to distinguish them from each other ; 

 and what renders the similitude more perfect and 

 more striking is, that they are composed of the 

 same principles, and nearly in the same propor- 

 tions. 



" It is remarkable, that all the stones, at what- 

 ever period, or in whatever part of the world, 

 they may have fallen, have appeared, as far as 

 they have been examined, to consist of the same 

 substances ; and to have nothing similar to them, 

 not only among the minerals in the neighbour- 

 hood of the places where they were found, but 

 among all that have hitherto been discovered in 

 our earth, as far as men have been able to pene- 

 trate. For the chemical analysis of a consider- 

 able number of specimens we are particularly 

 indebted to Mr Howard, as well as to Klaproth 

 and Vauquelin, and a precise mineralogical de- 

 scription of them has been given by the Count 

 de Bournon and others. 



" They are all covered with a thin crust of a 

 deep black colour, they are without gloss, and 

 their surface is roughened with small asperities. 

 Internally they are greyish, and of a granulated 

 texture, more or less fine. Four different sub- 

 stances are interspersed among their texture, 

 easily distinguished by a lens. The most abun- 

 dant is from the size of a pin's head to that of a 

 pea, opaque, with a little lustre like that of ena- 

 mel, of a grey colour sometimes inclined to brown, 

 and hard enough to give faint sparks with steel. 



