338 REPORT—18638. 
near Melrose, Roxburghshire. The mass, 323 lbs. in weight, was preserved 
upon the spot until 1861, when it was subjected to examination by Dr. 
Alexander Smith in Edinburgh, with results which prove the meteoric nature 
of the mass. In size and figure the meteorite is 10? inches in length, con- 
sisting of a warty mass 13 foot in girth, joined to an acuminated extremity, 
unlike any manufactured metal, but suggesting the idea that the extremity 
which is now the smaller and more pointed first reached the earth in its 
descent, while the larger extremity shows the part least affected by the 
shock. Casts and photographs having been taken, the meteorite was divided 
longitudinally into two portions by the saw. ‘The surfaces were filed and 
polished, and the figures of Widmanstiitten were developed by the action of 
nitric acid, 
These are more minute than in the generality of aérosiderites, but attest 
the meteoric character of the mass. Under the pressure necessary for taking 
a wax impression (whereof figure 1 is an electrotype copy), the smaller half 
of the mass separated into two portions. Such veins of separation are not 
uncommon among meteoric irons. The specific gravity of the lobed frag- 
ment was found to be 6:1919, that of the pointed fragment 6-°7400. The 
difference in hardness between the centre and outer layers of the metal was 
easily perceived by the use of the graving tool, and may be explained by the 
effects of sudden cooling, especially at the point, from contact with the surface 
of the earth. 
The specific gravity of the whole mass was 6:517, that of the unbroken 
half being 6-499. Transverse slices of the lobed portion and of the pyra- 
midal portion yielded respectively the specific gravities 6°350 and 6-750. 
The etching, fiz. 3, demonstrates the closer grain of the iron near the pointed 
