138 



METEORITE. 



Meteorite. 



Limoges. 



Slobuilka. 



Alleged 

 cases of the 

 phenome- 

 non to 

 which no 

 dates are 

 assigned. 

 Abydos. 



PlItilloM. 



Mecca. 



Sword of 

 Antar. 



Krasno- 

 jarlc. 



If such an incident really took place, it is to be hoped 

 that some more distinct memorial of the particulars, and 

 the exhibition of the stone itself will not be withholden 

 from the public. 



In regard to the alleged fall of a great stone at Li- 

 moges, on February 15, I81S, and which Chladni pro- 

 bably copied from the public prints, the report seems 

 to have been premature. See the new edition of Nou- 

 vtau D/clionnaire d'llistoire Nantrelle, t. 26, p. 270, in 

 the mnrsjin. 



July 29, O. S. 1818. A stone of seven pounds weight 

 fell at the village of Slobodka, in the province of Smo- 

 lensko, and penetrated nearly sixteen inches into the 

 ground. It had a brown crust with metallic spots. 

 Edin. Journ. of Science, No. 2. 



Before closing our chronological register, it will be 

 proper shortly to advert to the mention of various real 

 or alleged meteoric masses, the dates of whose history 

 can no longer be ascertained. 



That which was preserved in the gymnasium of A- 

 bydos, as quoted by Pliny. 



That which gave rise to the establishment of a colo- 

 ny, at Potidaea. Id. 



The black stone, and another deposited in the Caaba 

 of Mecca. 



The thunderbolt, described in Antar, as black in ap- 

 pearance, like a hard rock, brilliant and sparkling, and 

 of which the blacksmith forged the sword of Antar. 



The mass of cellular iron, described by Pal/as, Chlad- 

 ni, Putrin, &c, and found near Krasnojark, in Siberia. 

 The tradition of the Tartars assigns to it an atmosphe- 

 ric origin ; and the analogy of its aspect, texture, and 

 chemical characters with those of other chemical bodies, 

 whose descent from the air is no longer questioned, 

 powerfully tends to confirm the tradition. Although 

 thfe latter ascribes the formation of this extraordinary 

 mass to a period which is lost in the remoteness of an- 

 tiquity, its existence was first proclaimed, with the re- 

 quisite circumstances of authenticity, to the learned of 

 Europe in 1750, the year immediately subsequent to 

 the discovery of a rich vein of iron ore, near Abakansk, 

 by the Cossac Medvedief. As M. M. Mettich, inspec- 

 tor of mines, examined this vein, he remarked that it 

 was about seventeen inches thick, and that it traversed 

 a grey and compact hornstone, which apparently com- 

 posed the whole mountain. About 150 toises to the 

 west of this mine he discovered a mass of iron, which 

 he conjectured might weigh upwards of thirty poods. 

 It was full of small, yellow, and rough stones, of the 

 size of a kernel of the cedar cone ; and it lay on the 

 very ridge of the hill, which is covered with firs, with- 

 out adhering to the rock. Being much puzzled to de- 

 termine whether it had been formed naturally on the 

 spot, or conveyed thither, he sought, with eager but 

 fruitless diligence, for the slightest trace of any ancient 

 iron forge. Dr. Pallas was likewise decidedly of opi- 

 nion, that it could never have been produced in the 

 rude furnaces or kilns of the Siberian miners, which 

 were never known to yield more than fifty or sixty 

 pounds of metal at a time ; whereas the present mass, 

 before any fragments were detached from it, weighed 

 somewhat more than 1680 pounds. The iron is of a 

 coarse spongy texture, little contaminated by impuri- 

 ties, perfectly flexible, and capable of being converted 

 into small tools by a moderate heat. When exposed, 

 however, to a high temperature, and especially when 

 fused, it becomes dry and brittle, resolves into grains, 

 and refuses to cohere or extend under the hammer. In 

 its natural state, it is incrusted with a sort cf varnish; 



which has protected it from rust ; but when this coat Meteorite. 

 ing is romoved, or when broken in the state of bar ^"Y"*"' 

 iron, the usual process of oxidation very readily takes 

 place. The cavities in the mass are filled with a tran- 

 sparent, amber-coloured substance, in the form of 

 roundish grains or drops, presenting one or more flat 

 and glossy surfaces. The mass has no regular form, 

 but resembles a large, oblong, and somewhat flattened 

 block, externally coated like the nodules of some of the 

 blackish brown ores of iron. " This coating," says 

 Pallas, " is also very rich in iron ; and even the trans- 

 parent fluor yields some pounds of iron in the hundred. 

 Whoever will consider the mass itself, or large speci- 

 mens of it, will not have the least doubt of its having 

 been wrought by nature, since it has no one character 

 of scoriaceotis matters melted by artificial fire, or of 

 those commonly found among volcanos. No volcanic 

 ground, indeed, has been remarked nearer the moun- 

 tains of Yenissei than the extinct craters of Daouria, si- 

 tuated at 1500 miles to the east. 



The Siberian mass of native iron was first transport- 

 ed to Krasnojark, where it was found to weigh fifteen 

 quintals. In 1772, it was conveyed to St. Petersburg!), 

 and deposited in the collections of the Imperial Aca- 

 demy of Sciences. M. Patrin, who examined it in 

 1778, describes it as a large bomb, somewhat flattened, 

 and partly covered with a rough ochraceous crust. So 

 hard and compact was it in its natural state, that three 

 or four forgers employed between ten and twelve hours 

 in detaching from it a fragment of two pounds weight. 



Of a similar description seems to have been the frag- 

 ment which was found between Eibenstock and Jo- Eibenstock. 

 hanngeorgenstadt. Another, probably from Norway, 

 preserved in the Imperial Cabinet of Vienna. A small 

 mass, of some pounds weight, kept at Gotha A mass, 

 found under the pavement of Aken, near Magdeburg. 

 Loeber.A mass of iron from the coast of Honduras. 

 Annals of Phil. Scattered masses of black rock, con- 

 taining native iron, on the right bank of the Senegal. 

 Compaction, Forster, Gotbern/. A mass of iron at the 

 Cape of Good Hope, in which Stvomeyer detected the 

 presence of cobalt. Von Martim and Dankelman. 



In the Philosophical Transactions for 1816, there is 

 an interesting history aiid account of a mass of native 

 iron, found in the province of Bahia in Brazil, commu- Bahia, 

 nicated by A. F. Mornay, Esq. to Dr. Wollaston. It 

 ie about seven feet long, four feet wide, and two feet in 

 thickness, its solid contents being rudely estimated on 

 the spot at twenty cubic feet, and its weight at 1 4,000 Ib. 

 The colour of the top and sides is chesnut, and the 

 surface glossy, though not smooth, being slightly in- 

 dented all over, as if hammered, while the hollow part 

 underneath is covered with a flaky cru.st, whose exter- 

 nal surface is rusty. Here we should nut overlook, 

 that the cavities, or indentations on the surface, are 

 sometimes also observed on well ascertained meteorites. 

 Thus one of the Siena stones is described by Mr. King, 

 " as having many rounded cavities on its surface ; as if 

 the stone had been struck with small balls whilst it was 

 forming, and before it was hardened, which left their 

 impressions. And some appearances of the same kind," 

 he adds, " were found on one of the four surfaces of 

 another stone in the possession of Soldani." The sur- 

 face of the Yorkshire stone, too. presents similar cavi- 

 ties or depressions. Wherever the Brazilian block is 

 struck with a steel, it gives out abundance of sparks, 

 and, when rubbed with a quartz pebble in the dark, 

 it becomes beautifully luminous. It is not only magne- 

 tic, but manifests well-defined poles. Small fragments 

 6 



