A CATALOGUE OF OBSERVATIONS OF LUMINOUS METEORS. 133 



E., in N. latitude 36° 27', E. longitude 3° 40', which cut off branches from a 

 shrub, excavated a hole 1 yard wide and 1 foot deep, and afterwards rolled 

 down the mountain-side into a pathway, where it was found. The specific 

 gravity is 3-56 ; the crust is thin, dull black, and rough. The stones attract 

 the magnet, and contain about 10 per cent., by weight, of metallic iron alloyed 

 with nickel. Sulphiu-et of iron is also present, Avith chromc-irou in smaU 

 octahedral crystals. The meteorites contain soluble salts of soda (carbonate 

 and chloride ), and consist in their earthy portions of double silicates of iron 

 and magnesia, partly attackable and partly unattacked by miuiatic acid. The 

 greenish-grey spherules, verj'^ hard and compact, with crystals of Enstatyte and 

 Peridote, and other minerals scattered through the stone, are described Ity 

 M. Daubrce as they appeared under the microscope. 



(7.) 18G6, May 30t]i, 3" 45™ a.m. St. Mesmin, Aubo, France. 

 (Comptcs Ecndus, 1866, June 18th, vol. xlii.) 



A reddish meteor, drawing a long train of red fire, as seen from Nangis 

 and Bray-sur-Seine, burst over the " banlioue '' of St. Mesmin. Its disap- 

 pearance was followed, at intervals of about twenty seconds towards the E., 

 and of three, four, or five minutes towai'ds the W.S.W., fi'om which quarter 

 the meteor came, by three cannon-like reports. After a clattering noise and 

 a noise like rolling thunder that gradually died away, an aerolite 1 pound 

 in weight strack the earth with a loud shrieking noise* in a railway-cutting 

 at Haute de la Garenne, two yards from the rails, and penetrated 9 inches 

 into the sloping bank. A second, nearly half a mile from the first, was dis- 

 covered at Bas-le-Brun, which weighed 5 pounds ; and a thii-d, weighing 

 4 pounds, fell one mile from the other two. An indentation, about half an 

 inch in width with a fresh surface, upon the smallest, is covered -with thin 

 thread-like lines of the perfectly fused dull black crust, where an angle of the 

 meteorite is supposed from this circumstance to have been broken oft' during 

 its flight in the air. The specific gravity is 3-56 ; and the stones contain 5 or 

 6 per cent, by weight of metallic iron combined with nickel. Protosulphuret 

 of iron and chrome-iron ore are also present. The earthy portion of the me- 

 teorites consists of about 60 per cent, of a mineral which is impure olivine, 

 and about 40 per cent, of highly siliceous mineral unattackable by muriatic 

 acid. 



(8.) 1806, June 9th. Shortly before 5" p.m. (local time). 



Stoncfall ; Khyahinya, Xagy Eerezna, Hungary. (Vienna Acad. 

 Sitzungsber., July 12th, and October lUh, 1S66.) 



Two scientific persons, commissioned by the government from Pesth, after 

 inquiry upon the spot into the circumstances of this stonefall, gave their 

 report, of which the foUoAving is the substance : — 



The stones struck the earth in great numbers on an area 1200 yards in 

 length, in lat. 49° N., long. 22° E. from Greenwich. The meteor was seen 

 at distances varying from thirty to seventy-five miles from the place of fall. 

 At Eperies, fifty-five miles west from Knyahinya, it presented the appear- 

 ance of a burning birch-rod. The handle, which was directed foremost, was 

 deep red : and the meteor shot over Saros and Zemplin to a point due east, 

 where it burst, scattering its fragments in aU directions, and houses shook 



* Am experiment by which most of the different noises made by mctoorilos in falling, 

 such as humming, buzzing, shrieking, &.i4, can be imitated, may be made by projecting 

 fragments of iron of different shapes from a common sling. 



