OBSERVATIONS OF LUMINOUS METEORS. , 367 



i 

 grammes, and a portion of it weighing 7326 grammes has been deposited 

 in the mineralogical collection of the University of Giessen. It has an 

 irregularly triangular and flattened form, and less than one quarter of 

 the stone has apparently been removed. It should be stated here that 

 Buchner learned from several who were able to bear witness to the occur- 

 rence, that the sound attending the descent of the meteorites proceeded 

 in a direction from N.W. to S.E. The freshly fallen leaves of mid- 

 October rendered hopeless further search for the other stones which must 

 have fallen. 



The crust of the meteorite is dull black and thin, and exhibits here 

 and there granules of nickel-iron. The fractured surface displays a grey, 

 occasionally brownish, matrix, which is traversed by a very thin but very 

 conspicuous brilliant black band of material ; it runs obliquely to the 

 flattened side of this stone, and is also found in the smaller mass, picked up 

 five months later, which evidently never formed part of a larger meteorite. 

 On another part of the fractured surface of the larger stone, a second 

 black line, parallel to the first, but less brilliant, is to be seen. Abundant 

 particles of nickel-iron and troilite are met with; and the crust appears to 

 consist, to the extent of one-half, of the metallic alloy. Examination under 

 the microscope shows the ground mass to be colourless and transparent 

 and to be fissured in every direction. It appears to consist of olivine. Some 

 olivine spherules are quite conspicuous, surrounded either by the black 

 material or nickel-iron ; other chondra have a banded or radiate structure, 

 like those observed by Tschermak in the aerolites of Shergotty or Gopalpur, 

 and appear to be bronzite ; and lastly, there are spherules of a homogeneous 

 grey translucent substance, devoid of or rarely traversed by fissures. 

 Buchner states that the meteorite of Hungen, while a member of the 

 most common class of meteorites, can easily be distinguished from those 

 which fell at Agen, Girgenti, New Concord, Kuyahinya, Krakenberg, 

 Pultusk, and many others which he mentions. 



The smaller stone was presented to the Vienna Collection, and forms 

 the subject of a few notes by Tschermak in an appendix to Buchner's paper. 

 He describes its characters, which nearly approach those of the Pultusk 

 meteorites. The black crust has the unusual thickness of 1*5 mm., and 

 encloses particles of nickel-iron, granules of magnetic pyrites (troilite?), 

 and even lustreless chondra, which may consist of chromite or picotite. 

 The transparent minerals constituting the chief mass of the stone are of 

 three kinds : 1. Olivine, recognised by its rectangular cleavage and few 

 included minerals, and by its contributing but little to the chondritic 

 character of the stone ; 2. Bronzite, in granules and aggregated crystals, 

 showing a prismatic cleavage, the latter being either barred or radiate, or 

 contorted and forming the greater number of the chondra ; and 3. Diallage, 

 for such Tschermak believes to be a brown mineral, forming angular 

 fragments, which are found not to be rhombic and to resemble an augite. 

 The chromite occurs in granules and in larger crystals than are met 

 with in other meteorites. 



This interesting stone has not yet been analysed. 



1877, June. — Cronstadt, Orange River Free State, South Africa. 

 All that I have yet been able to gather respecting this occurrence is, 

 that a shower of stones fell near Cronstadt in June last, in a wooded 

 district, so that few of them could be collected. One of them is preserved 

 in the British Museum. 



