AEEOLITES. 



for there may be other cosmical bodies besides the moon 

 in which water may be entirely wanting, and processes of ' 

 oxidation may be rare. 



The cosmical gelatinous vesicles, the organic masses re- 

 sembling the Tremella nostoc, which, since the middle ages, 

 have been supposed to belong to shooting stars, and the pyrites 

 of Sterlitamak, west of the Oural, which are supposed 

 to have formed the inside of hailstones ( 82 ), belong to the 

 fables of meteorology. The aerolites winch possess a fine- 

 grained texture, and are composed of olivine, augite, and 

 labradorite ( 83 ), are, as Gustav Kose has shewn, the only 

 ones which have a telluric appearance; for example, the 

 aerolite resembling dolorite, found at Juvenas, in the De- 

 partement de TArdeche. They contain, in fact, crystalline 

 substances quite similar to those of the crust of the earth ; 

 and in the Siberian mass of meteoric iron, the olivine is 

 only distinguished by the absence of nickel, which is there 

 replaced by oxide of tin ( 84 ). As meteoric olivine, like 

 our basalts, contains from 47 to 49 per cent, of magnesia, 

 and as, according to Berzelius, olivine forms one -half 

 of the earthy constituents in meteoric stones, there is no 

 reason to be surprised at the large proportion of silicate of 

 magnesia which we find in these cosmical masses. Since 

 the aerolite of Juvenas contains distinct crystals of augite 

 and labradorite, the numerical proportions of the constituents 

 render it at least probable, that the meteoric masses of 

 Chateau Eenard are examples of diorite composed of horn- 

 blende and albite, and that those of Blansko and Chatonnay 

 are combinations of hornblende and labradorite. The proof 

 which has been supposed to be furnished, by the minera- 

 logical resemblances just alluded to, of a telluric or atmo- 



