METEORS AND AEROLITES. 275 



neighbourhood of Andernach y weighing 3,300 Ibs. The vol- 

 canic locality might render the origin of this ambiguous; 

 but its analysis by Professor BischofT of Bonn, in showing a 

 composition of soft metallic iron with a small proportion of 

 nickel, leaves little doubt of its belonging to the class of 

 meteoric bodies. Another remarkable specimen is the 

 Siberian stone, described by Pallas, and which we have 

 ourselves seen in the Imperial Museum at St. Petersburgh, 

 composed of soft spongy iron and olivine. The Tartars on 

 the spot had a tradition of the fall of this stone from the sky, 

 as the Mongolians have of a fragment of black rock, 40 feet 

 high, near the sources of the Yellow Eiver. Other great 

 masses have been found in Australia, proving (if proof 

 were needful) the universality of the phenomenon over the 

 globe. 



Before proceeding to the theory of the bodies thus admitted 

 to have been cast upon the earth, we must say something more 

 of their chemical composition inasmuch as this is not only 

 remarkable in itself, but closely concerned in their theory, 

 and with other speculations of high interest. Collecting the 

 results of all the best analyses down to the present time, we 

 find the actual number of recognised elements discovered in 

 aerolites to be nineteen or twenty that is, about one third 

 of the whole number of elementary substances (or what we 

 are yet forced to regard as such) discovered on the earth. 

 Further, all these aerolitic elements actually exist in our 

 planet, though never under the same combinations. No new 

 substance has hitherto come to us from without; and the 

 most abundant of our terrestrial metals, Iron, is that which 

 is largely predominant in all aerolites; forming sometimes, 

 as in certain of the instances just mentioned, upwards 

 of 90 parts in 100 of the mass. Seven other metals 

 copper, tin, nickel, cobalt, chrome, manganese, and molyb- 

 dena enter variously into the composition of these stones. 



T 2 



