EXTRACTS FOREIGN AND DOMESTIC. 153 



Prof. C. N. Shc'pard then gave a very interesting account of a 

 now locality of meteoric iron, at the head of St. Augustine Bay, 

 on the southwest coast of Madagascar. The information came from 

 jLt. H. C. Flagg, who touched at a town at the head of that bay 

 I in the John Adams, U. S. ship of war. The people are in the 

 t wildest possible state of savages : their hair is long and black ; 

 llfeatures Caucasian ; clothes of not much account j and their only 

 ' weapons the spear and fish hook. When the John Adams' people 

 offered these savages some American iron in exchange for pro- 

 visions, &c., they re-^jected it w'ith disdain, saying that they had 

 native iron in their own island of a far superior quality, and point- 

 ed to some elevated land about six or eight miles in the interior, 

 wliere they said they found large quantities of pure malleable 

 ron, and many large boulders of it — one boulder being at least 

 -ixleen feet in diameter. This iron they skilfully worked up into 

 ;prar-heads of a very destructive and superior character, and fish- 

 inoks ; their great skill in working this iron they obtained from 

 he buccaneers, who frequented the island very often after the cap- 

 uvc of Mozambique by Vasco de Gama. Prof. Shepard said he 

 lad analysed a part of one of these spear-heads, and found it to 

 )e true meteoric iron ; it contained nickel. Its specific gravity 

 vas 7.8, and its analysis gave — 



Iron, 96 .66 



Nickel and traces of cobalt^^ 3 . 34 



nd the structure was different from that of any pure iron that we 

 :now of. The largest specimen of meteoric iron previously 

 nown, was a piece of about 30,000 pounds, in South America. 



is piece found in Madagascar, if correctly described, must be 

 .ach the largest. Certainly the deposit in Madagascar is a very 

 xtraordinary one. It is certain that this iron came from Heaven, 

 llhough it has since been put to very base purposes ; for just be- 

 ^rc the ship John Adams reached Madagascar, the crew of a 



-tish merchant vessel were murdered by these very natives ; and 

 .'■: spear in the room probably drank the blood of a son of "per: 

 (lious Albion." 



THE SEA HARE. 



Prof. Shepard then exhibited a very fine specimen of a curious 

 ud rare animal called the sea hare by the ancients — Lepus Mnri- 

 us. The animal is of an oval form, with peculiarly shaped tenta- 

 ala ; when the animal is moving in the water, its tentacles look 

 ke the ears of the hare in running. Pliny frequently speaks of 

 le Lepus JMarinus, although he never described the animal. This 

 ttle animal was supposed to be most deadly poisonous, and who- 

 -er touched the peculiar blue liquid which is emitted from its 



VOL II. NO. I. U 



