OBSEKVATIONS OF LUMINOUS METEORS. 245 



noticed in tlicii- investigations, the author believes that tlio whole amount was 

 by no means exhausted, and ascribes the excess to the fact of the metal which 

 he used having been in a fine state of division. 



1812, August 5th. — Chantonnay, De'p. do la Vende'e, France*. 



In the winter of 1874 Tschcrmak published a paper on the structure of the 

 meteorites of Orvinio and Chantonnay, which appear to have many characters 

 in common. Sections of the latter stone, three drawings of which are given 

 in his paper, show it to be made up of chondritic fragments, covered -with a 

 dark-coloured crust, and cemented together with a black and in places semi- 

 vitreous material. The fragments are not very abundantly provided with 

 spherules, although large ones are here and there met with. It differs from 

 the chondritc of the Orvinio meteorite in containing less iron ; a section shows 

 olivine, bronzite, a finely fibrous translucent mineral, as well as nickel-iron 

 and maguctic pyrites. The presence of chromite was not recognized. Fiae 

 black veins of a mineral traverse the fragments here and there, and are con- 

 nected with the cementing material. Similar veins are noticed in the me- 

 teorites of Lissa, Kakowa, Chateau Renard, Alessandria, and Pultusk ; and 

 in the Lissa and KakoAva stones they present the appearance as if the me- 

 teorite had originally come in contact with a molten material which had been 

 injected into the clefts of its surface, lieicheubaeh was of opinion that the 

 black veins were directly and intimately connected with the fused surface ; 

 his view, however, is open to question, from the fact that the interior of a 

 meteorite has usually a low temperature when it reaches the earth's surface. 

 Moreover, in the case of the Chantonnay stone, clefts are to be met with into 

 which the black matter of the crust has penetrated to a depth of 6 mUlims. 

 only, although the cleft remains partly open. The black semivitreous magma 

 consists of an entirely opaque mass, enclosing flakes of the silicate -which 

 forms the fragments, as well as occasional spherules. 



Although Eammelsbcrg, who analyzed this stone, does not describe the phy- 

 sical characters of the material he operated on, and did not separately examine 

 the fragments and the cementing material, as Tschermak has done in his exami- 

 nation of the Or-vinio meteorite, Tschermak points out that the two meteorites 

 have much the same composition, and differ mainly in the proportion of iron. 

 The characters observed in these two meteorites point to the conclusion that 

 they did not originally possess their present constitution, but that by the dis- 

 integration of a solid rock-mass and its subsequent cementation with a semi- 

 vitreous magma they attained their present appearance. Though they 

 resemble somewhat the eruptive breccias, they differ from them in that the 

 meteoric cementing material is less homogeneous, and encloses compact flakes 

 of the rock itself. The Chantonnay stone exhibits the fine texture observed 

 in some metamorphosed breccias. The two stones convey to us evidence of 

 changes which must have occurred on the solid surface of some planet that 

 was subseqiiently reduced to fragments. 



1813, September 10th. — Adare, &c., Co. Limerick, Ireland f. 



This meteorite, originally investigated by ApjohnJ, has been examined by 

 11. Apjohn, who finds tliat it contains a trace of vanadium. The date which 



» G. Tsclicrmak, ' Sitzungsbev. Ak. Wis's. Wien,' Ixx. November Heft, 1874. 

 t E. Aiijohn, ' Jouru. Cliem. Soc' sii. p. 104. 

 I Apjohn, ' Truns. Irish Acad.' xviii. p. 17. 



