324 J. Lawrence Smith on Meteorites. 
Another physical fact worthy of being noticed here, is* the 
manner in which the metallic iron and stony parts are often inter- 
laced and mixed, as in the Pallas and Atacama irons, where 
nickeliferous iron and olivine in nearly equal portions (by bulk) 
they will. be passed over. 
Mineralogical and Chemical points to be noted in Meteorites. 
—The rocks or minerals of meteorites are not of a sedimentary 
character, not such as are produced by the action of water. This 
is obvious to any one who will examine these bodies. A mineralo- 
gist will also be struck with the thin dark-colored coating on the 
surface of the stony meteorites. The coating, in most, if notgn 
all, instances is of atmospheric origin, being acquired. after the 
meteorite enters the atmosphere, and as such, no fnrther notice 
will be taken of it; but I will proceed at once to notice the most 
to various active and extinct volcanoes. It is useless to dwell on 
this fact, as it is one well known to all mineralogists who may have 
examined this matter, and none have given more especial atten- 
tion to it than Rammelsberg who in a paper published in 1849, 
ails his examination of a great variety of lavas, and tra ed | 
the perfect parallelism between them and stony meteorites. He 
showed that the Juvenas stone has the same constitution as the | 
Thjorsa lava of Heckla, both consisting substantially of augite 
