OBSERVATIONS OF LUMINOUS METEORS. 191 



Found 1875 (?). — Red River, northward of Young Co., Texas*. 



There is preserved in the State collections at Austin a mass of meteoric iron 

 weighing- 315 lb., which is said to have been found on the head waters of the 

 Red River, northward of Young County. 



1875, August 16th (about noon). — Feid-Chair, Cercle de la Calle, 



Constantine f. 



This meteorite fell about midday at a spot named Feid-Chair, about 30 

 kilometres from La Calle, tho descent being attended with the accustomed 

 luminous appearance. It weighs about 3S0 grammes ; all search to discover 

 other stones has proved of no avail. The stone has a black crust and a 

 grey interior, in which particles of nickel-iron and troilite are imbedded. 

 Spherules are recognized, but the matrix likewise exhibits a brecciated struc- 

 ture ; grains of a dull black hue are also distributed through the mass. The 

 siliceous portion acts on polarized light. The enclosed crystals are too small 

 to allow of their form being recognized. This portion of the stone is acted 

 upon by acid, and appears to consist of a mixture of olivine and enstatite. 

 The Feid-Chair meteorite closely resembles the stones which fell at La Baffe 

 Dep. des Yosges (1822, September 13th), Heredia, Costa Rica (1857, Aprillst), 

 Canellas, near Barcelona (1861, May l4th), and Khetrcc, Rajpootana, India 

 (1867, January 19th). This is the third occasion within tho space of twelve 

 years that meteorites have been seen to fall in Algiers and have been 

 preserved. 



1875, September 14th, 4 p.m. — Supino, circ. Frosinone, Rome. 



The asserted fall of an aiirolite on this date, recorded in the last volume of 

 these reports (vol. for 1876, p. 164), and again as an authentic stonefall in the 

 ' Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society ' (vol. xxxvii. pp. 205-6), 

 is entirely refuted by a letter from Padre Secchi, in the latter volume of the 

 ' Monthly Notices ' (p. 365), in which the real circumstances of the supposed 

 meteor and stonefall are related and described. A flash of lightning which 

 occurred in the public square of Supino struck a neighbouring house with suf- 

 ficient violence to dislodge a stone from the roof, without doing any more 

 material damage to the house. The supposed " meteorite," which fell in the 

 courtyard of the house, is identified by Padre Secchi with the ordinary 

 volcanic stones of the district, which is in the neighbourhood of an extinct 

 volcano, and it probably lay (as it is customary to protect them against the 

 force of the wind) upon the tiles of the roof until it was projected from its 

 place by the lightning-stroke. 



1876, April 9th, 8.20 p.m. (Vienna mean time). — Hungary 

 A detonating meteor ; see above, 1874, April 10th. 



1876, June 25th, 9-10 a.m. — Kansas City, Missouri §. 

 A small meteorite fell between nine and ten in tho morning of the above 

 day, on the tin roof of the house, No. 556 Main Street, Kansas City. It 



* S. B. Buckle}', ' Second Annual Report of the Geological and Agricultural Surrey of 

 Texas.' Houston, Texas, 1876. 



t G. A. Daubree, ' Oompt. Bend.' 1877, vol. lxxxiv. p. 70. 



| Prof. Ton Niessl, ' Sitzungsber. Akad. Wiss. Wien,' vol. Ixxv., April 10th, 1877. 



§ J. D. Parker, ' Amer. Journ. So.' 1876, vol. xii. p. 316. 



