OBSEEYATIONS OF LUMINOUS METEOES. 301 



[Cairo (Calabria), 1813, March 14, stonefall and dust ; ? if any specimen 

 has been preserved.] 



Comparison with the Sales arid Kuleschowka stones shows a fair 

 resemblance in the mineral type and iron-dissemination -with the present 

 meteorite, but yet sufficient diversity of character to distinguish them 

 from each other very clearly. The solid massive Timoschin aerolite con- 

 sists largely of metallic ii'on, and that of Alais contains it only in fine 

 powdei' mixed with a clayey carbonaceous earth. The description of 

 outward appearance is, on the contrary, exactly accordant in the Kule- 

 Schowka and Middlesbrough aerolites, although they differ in weight and 

 size. The same low broad pyramid, or buckler-like figure, grotesquely 

 trenched and furrowed from the rounded summit outwards in front, 

 ' like the forehead of a bony skull ' ; with a black polished surface there, 

 and dull brown crust upon the hollowed back ; these are features that tell 

 the meteorite's tale of a darting, smelting journey through the air with a 

 clearness and distinctness which it is rare to find typified so perfectly 

 among the known hundreds of museum specimens, as we find them shown 

 and illustrated in the Kuleschowka stone's description, and in the excel- 

 lent actual example of them which has now anew presented itself in the 

 Middlesbrough aerolite.' But it is unsafe to reason, even fi-om identical 

 chemical composition, on possible physical connection between their 

 courses, since such chemical identity has been pointed out by Daubree in 

 several instances of pairs of aerolites of such widely different dates of fall 

 that no assignable astronomical common origin can be traced or even 

 suspected to exist on that ground between them. The present aerolite 

 appears also to belong to the most usually occurring ordinary chondritic 

 class, although by simplicit}' of composition it will perhaps be found to 

 take rank among some of the more exceptional meteorites of that 

 description. 



At the time of the stone's fall the constellation Perseus was overhead, 

 and the small constellation Triangulum was a little south of the zenith at 

 Middlesbrough. Some cometary accordances with meteor-showers pro- 

 ceeding from that constellation in the first two weeks of March have been 

 rioticed, to which in connection with this aerolitic date attention may be 

 directed on account of the very near appulse which one of the comets' 

 orbits makes to the orbit of the earth. 



The comets are those of a.d. 1746, and a.d. 1231 ; the former 

 approaching the earth's orbit within about one-hundredth, and the latter 

 within about six-hundredths of the earth's distance from the sun, on 

 March 8 and 10 respectively. The showers of shooting-stars agreeing 

 pretty nearly with them were deduced by Mr. Denning from catalogues 

 of meteor observations by Weiss and Schiaparelli, and are well-marked, 



' See A. Goebel's descriptions of Russian aerolites, Melanges Pkysvjucs et Chi- 

 miqitcs de L'Acacliniie Impmale de.St. Petershourg, vol. vii. pp. 286-288. Instances of 

 end-on erosion, denoting constant orientation of front- and rear-faces of aerolites in 

 their flight, occur also in some stones of Stannern, in one of L'Aigle, and in those of 

 Gross Divina and Goatpara, as first noticed by Von Haidinger (Vienna Academy Sitz- 

 ungsherichte, vol. xl. pp. 525-532, 1860, and xlv. p. 790, and lix.) ; in that of Durala 

 (India), depicted by Professor Maskelyne {PMlosopMcal Magazine, vol. xxv. p. 4i0, 

 1863) ; and finally in that of Karakol (in the Kirgis Steppe, May 9, 1840) as figured 

 by A. Goebel (loco sup. cit., jjp. 318-324). The last aerolite especially exhibits with 

 exceptional perfection, almost rivalling the anterior rotundity and grooving of the 

 Middlesbrough one, the blunt-pointed projectile configuration which denotes one- 

 sided action of the heat-erosion. 



