128 report— 1865. 



the body itself was larger than it. My boy told me it only comes when 

 a king dies, and curiously enough we hear that the Eajah of Mysore has 

 just died." 



IV. Meteorites, Siderites, Siderolites. (See also V. (5) to (8.)) 

 (1.) 1863, December 10th, 3 L a.m. Trebizond (Asia Minor). 



Three days after the meteoric fall of Tourinnes-la-Grosse, and five days 

 after the largest meteor described in the Catalogue of the last Report, a de- 

 tonating meteor of very unusual character passed over Samoronitza, near 

 Trebizond. The meteor desoended with a report equal to a hundred cannons, 

 into a wood near Inly (twelve miles from Samaronitza), which it set on fire. 

 A thick fall of snow following, a few fragments, only, of doubtful meteoric 

 character, could be recovered on the 6th of March 1864. The real substance 

 of the meteorite appears to have eluded search, from its pulverulent or 

 otherwise easily destructible nature*. Large meteors on the 3rd, 9th, and 

 13th of December are described in the present Catalogue. They indicate a 

 return of this aerolitic period, rendered famous by the earlier falls of Benares, 

 Wold Cottage, and "Weston, and by the recent fall of Montrejeau, near Tou- 

 louse, on the 9th of December 1858. 



Incendiary meteors have twice been recorded to have taken place upon 

 the 13th of November. The first instance is described in the ' Astronomische 

 Nachrichten ' (vol. viii. p. 107), — a meteor which fell near Prague on the 

 13th of November 1829, and burned the surface of a field brick-red. The 

 second meteor set fire to a bam at Ain, in France, on the 13th of November 

 1835. The " phosphorescent lines of light " observed in great numbers in 

 the great November shower of 1833, are perhaps meteors of the same 

 description. 



Among the municipal records of the town of Ludlow, in Shropshire, there 

 is preserved, in vellum, a roll of bailiffs from the time of Queen Elizabeth. 

 Under the date 1594, occurs the following passage : — 



" A greate barne in Lempster [Leominster, Hereford] fired by a comett, and 

 burned 15 dayes." 



The occurrence must have created considerable sensation at the time, or it 

 would not have been recorded in such a document ; and the writer of the 

 record certainly lived at the time, and in the neighbourhood. 



(2.) Siderites. 



Two large blocks of iron at Western-port, near Melbourne (Victoria), 

 weighing 5 to 6 and 1| tons respectively, have been examined in situ by 

 Dr. Neumayer, who supposes them to be of meteoric origin. The larger is 

 now in the British Museum. A third, weighing \\ ton, has been transported 

 to Melbourne from the Dandenog hills, sixty miles east of Melbourne, and 

 some miles to the north of Western-port (Vienna Acad. Sitzungsber., 1861, 

 April 18, and June 6). 



A portion of metallic iron labelled " native iron " in the Museum at 

 Ziirich, has been recognized by Dr. Haidinger as a fragment of the meteoric 

 iron of Steinbach, in Saxony (Vienna Acad. Sitzungsber., 1864, April 28). 



(3.) Siderolites. (Vienna Acad. Sitzungsber., 1864, May 12.) 

 A large block of mixed meteoric iron and stone (Siderolite), similar to the 



4 



* Vienna Acad. Sitzungsber., 1864, April 28. 



