OBSERVATIONS OF LUMINOUS METEORS. 347 



Staunton, and endeavoured to sell it. He failed to do so, and threw it 

 away behind a blacksmith's shop, where it lay several years until it was 

 used with other loose material to build a stone fence. By reason of its 

 irregular shape and great weight it soon fell out of the fence, and was 

 next used by a dentist as an anvil, on which to hammer metal plates, 

 and for such base purposes as the cracking of nuts ; then it was 

 again built into a wall round the curbing of a cistern. In 1877 it was 

 removed to Rochester, IST.Y., and a fragment of it came into Mallet's 

 possession. It weighs 152 pounds, is 457 cm. in length, and 29'2 cm. 

 in breadth, and in shape somewkafcresernbles that of a shoulder of mutton. 

 A sketch of the mass is given in Mallet's paper. The specific gravity of 

 the iron is 7-688, and the metal when etched, exhibits the Wiedmannstattian 

 figures "clearly and beautifully." The composition of the iron was 

 found to be : 



Iron 91-439 



Nickel 7.559 



Cobalt 0.608 



Copper 0-021 



Tin trace 



Phosphorus 0-068 



Sulphur 0-018 



Chlorine trace 



Carbon 0-142 



Silicium (reckoned as silicic acid) 0.108 



99-963 



There can be no doubt that the four specimens found in the same 

 neighbourhood represent different portions of the same meteoric fall. 



1861, June 28th (June 16t7i,O.S.) 7 a.m. Grosnaja (Grosnja), Banks of 

 the Terek, Caucasus. Russia* 



Sixteen years ago Abich, who was at the time in Tiflis, sent to Gustav 

 Rose, in Berlin, a short description of a large fall of meteorites at Grosnaja 

 on the morning of the above day. The greater number appear to have 

 fallen into the river Terek ; one fell in the great square in the interior of 

 the (? Staniza) barrack, entered the ground to the depth of If feet; it 

 pursued an oblique course through the air, and was distinctly warm when 

 dug out. The meteorite had the form of a huge hailstone, and was 

 covered with a black crust. 



Abich, who has taken up his residence in Vienna, placed the stone in 

 the hands of Professors Tschermak and Ludwig for examination, and the 

 results of their investigations, together with a detailed report of the 

 circumstances attending its descent, have been incorporated in the paper 

 by Professor Tschermak, referred to in the note. 



It is stated in the report drawn up by General-Major Kundukof, 

 military commandant of the Tschetschensk district, that on the night of 

 the 15th-16th June (O.S.), a barely dark one, there was neither thunder, 

 wind, nor ram. On Friday, the 16th, the morning was clear and bright ; 

 light rain-clouds, which however brought no rain, hung on the western 

 horizon over the station Mekenskoi, the inhabitants of which were startled 

 at about seven o'clock by a deafening sound, which continued a long 

 space of time. A non-commissioned officer of the Mosdok regiment, who 

 was walking from the Navursky to the Mikenskoi barracks (? Staniza), 



* 



G. Tschermak, ' Mineralogische und Petrographische Mittheilungen,' 1878, 153. 



