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peculiar traits that are regarded as characteristic of meteorites. It 

 has, for example, a fused, vitrified black coating, which is quite con- 

 tinuous over a considerable part of the mass, and contains several 

 grains and imbedded nodular and vein-like portions of metallic iron, 

 in which I understand nickel and cobalt have been detected. 



" The general character of the body of the stone is indeed pecu- 

 liar ; and as a whole, unlike any one I have yet seen ; it being prin- 

 cipally made up of a dull greyish yellow, peridotic mineral, which I 

 have nowhere met with among these productions, except in the 

 Hommoney Creek meteoric iron mass, and which exists in it only in 

 a very limited quantity. It is singular to remark also, that the 

 stone under notice strikingly resembles in size, shape and surface, 

 the iron above alluded to. 



" The absence of the black, slaggy coating on one of the broad 

 surfaces of the stone, may arise from its having been broken away, 

 by the violence to which it must have been subjected in entering 

 the tree ; for it appears to have buried itself completely at its con- 

 tact, an operation which would probably have been impossible, in 

 the case of a stone, but for its wedge-shaped configuration, and the 

 coincidence of one of its edges with the vertical fibres of the wood." 

 In reply to a question I subsequently put to Dr. Shepard as to 

 whether he knew of any examples of meteorites having struck trees 

 in America, he replied as follows : 



" I think you will find in the volume I left with Mr. Reeks at the 

 Museum, an account of the fall of Little Piney, Missouri, February 

 13th, 1839; in which it is stated that the stone struck a tree and 

 was shattered to fragments, it being one of a brittle character. In 

 the interior of the Cabarras county, N. Carolina, a stone (October 

 31, 1849) I know struck a tree, and I found it was difficult, indeed 

 impossible, to separate completely the adhering woody fibres from 

 the rough hard crust of the meteorite. The stone in this case is a 

 peculiarly tough one, having a decidedly trappean character, render- 

 ing it as nearly infragile as cast iron." 



Aware that some time must elapse before the precise analysis, 

 which I wished to be made in the laboratory of Dr. Percy, could be 

 completed, and that the last meeting of the Royal Society was to be 

 held this evening, I announced the notice I am now communicating. 

 At the same time I resolved to visit the locality where the tree stood, 



