Te = 
OBSERVATIONS OF LUMINOUS METEORS. 289 
(1) Over (2) Over (3) Over point 
Caermarthen., Bordsey Isl. off Anglesea. 
Altitudes in miles.......... cri Saal 33 
Distant from Birmingham .. 112;8.70°W. 119; N.76°W. 
Distant from Newcastle .... 240;8.299°W. 190;58. 41° W. 
“Length of path 105 miles, direction 7° E. of south, inclination to horizon 
16°, velocity 17 miles per second, amount of deflection 9 miles vertically 
down in a path of 36 miles from position No. 2; distance of companion from 
—~~SZs if 
nucleus } mile, thus : SSSey (distance asunder 12’, between a 
ey _— and # Coronz).” 
II. A#RoOLxITES. - 
It is noticed in the ‘ American Journal of Science’ of September 1873, 
that a mass of meteoric iron found at Neuntmannsdorf, in Saxony, in 
December 1872, weighing 25 lbs., has been deposited in the Museum at 
Dresden. 
In the ‘Comptes Rendus’ (vol. Ixxix. p. 276, August 3rd, 1874) are 
communications by M. Daubrée on the recent aérolitic falls of Vidin (Turkey) 
_and St. Amand (France), of which the following are abstracts. 
Virba, near Vidin, Turkey, May 20, 1874.—An aérolite weighing 8 lbs. fell 
with the usual loud explosions, and penetrated the earth to a depth of about 
1 metre (33 feet). It was entirely coated over with a dull black crust, and, 
as preserved in photographs, its form appears to have been fragmentary. 
The substance of the stone is light grey, fine-grained, with a rough fracture 
and occasional globular structure. Fine grains of metallic nickeliferous iron 
and impalpable particles of chrome iron and sulphuret of iron are scattered 
through it. The mineral portion is partly attackable (peridot) and partly 
unattackable (enstatite) by hydrochloric acid. The attackable part forms 
fully one half of the meteoric mass. It is thus a meteorite of the most common 
species, like that of lucé or lucéite. The following aérolites are cited by M. 
Daubrée as resembling it:—Bachmut, 1814, February 15; Politz, 1819, 
October 13; Angers, 1822, June 3; Mascombes (Corréze), 1835, June 30; 
Iowa (U.S.), 1847, February 25 ; Ski (Norway), 1848, December 27 ; (sel 
Isle, 1855, May 11; Saint-Denis (Western Belgium), 1855, June 7; Bus- 
choff (Kurland), 1863, June 2; Dolgowola (Volhynia), 1864, June 26. 
Saint-Amand, Loir-et-Cher, France, July 23, 1872.—In addition to the 
fragments of this fall found at Lancé (1041bs.) and at Pont Loiselle (2 lb. 
in weight), the latter fragment ten kilometres (6} miles) from the former 
(see these Reports for 1873, p. 384), M. Daubrée relates that four other frag- 
ments, weighing between 7 lbs. and 3 lb., have since been discovered. Two. 
of them, weighing about 14 Ib. each, were found 100 metres apart, while the 
other two struck the ground some miles from them and from each other. 
Ill. Laren Merrors anv Mrtrror-SHowERS. 
The following catalogue includes the observations of large meteors during 
the past year of which accounts have reached the Committee. 
1874, U 
