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matter with an opening or cavity into which rootlets extended. On 

 interrogating Mr. Poole, who cut down the tree and superintended 

 the breaking up of its timber, I learnt from him all requisite parti- 

 culars respecting its dimensions, the position of the ferruginous 

 mass, the quantity of wood above and below it, a description of the 

 place where the stool of the tree was still to be seen, and of the 

 parties who, living on the spot, were acquainted with every circum- 

 stance which could throw light on the case. 



At this period of the inquiry, the Museum in Jermyn Street was 

 visited by Dr. Shepard, Professor in the University College, Ara- 

 herst, United States, whose researches on meteorites are widely 

 known, and who has furnished an able classification of them by 

 which they are divided into the two great classes of stony and me- 

 tallic. Having carefully examined the specimen, Dr. Shepard ex- 

 pressed his decided belief that it was a true meteorite, and the next 

 day wrote to me the following account of it ; at the same time re- 

 ferring me most obligingly to a series of interesting publications on 

 the subject as printed in America and Europe*: 



" Concerning the highly interesting mineral mass, lately found 

 enclosed in the trunk of a tree, and of which you have done me the 

 honour to ask my opinion, I beg leave to observe, that I have no 

 hesitation in pronouncing it to be a true meteoric stone. 



" Aside from the difficulty of otherwise accounting for it, under 

 the circumstances in which it is found, the mass presents those 



* Dr. Shepard's numerous memoirs on meteorites are all to be found in the 

 volumes of the American Journal of Science and Art, and in the same work the 

 reader will find not only the general classification of these bodies by this author, 

 who possesses a collection from 103 localities, but also essays on the same subject 

 by his countrymen Dr. Troost, Professor Silliman, jun., and Dr. Clark. 



In our own country, Mr. Brayley published some years ago a comprehensive 

 view of this subject in the Philosophical Magazine, and recently Mr. Greg has in 

 the same publication put together all the previous and additional materials, with 

 tables showing the geographical distribution of meteorites. Among the well- 

 recorded examples of the fall of metalliferous meteorites, no one is more remark- 

 able than that which happened in the year 1851, about sixteen leagues S.E. of 

 Barcelona in Spain. In describing that phenomenon, Dr. Joaquim Balcells, Pro- 

 fessor of Natural Sciences at Barcelona, has illustrated the subject with much 

 erudition, whilst his theoretical views are ingenious in his endeavour to explain 

 how meteorites are derived from the moon. 



