II. — TJie Meteoric Irons from Griqualand East, South Africa. — 

 By Pbof. E. Cohen, Greifsioald. 



(Plates III., IV., V.) 



The larger of the two irons here described has been in the South 

 African Museum since December, 1885. It is mentioned in the 

 Eeport of the Trustees for that year as " a very large iron meteorite 

 of singular form and weighing 560 lbs.," presented by Mr. C. P. 

 "Watermeyer. The weight so given is, however, inaccurate, as before 

 the piece, on which the following description is mainly based, was 

 cut off, the weight was found to be 657 lbs. (298 kg.) 



From the records in the Museum and inquiries made by Dr. 

 Corstorphine, it appears that two masses of iron were originally 

 brought to the Museum through the agency of Mr. Watermeyer. 

 From the correspondence they clearly were both brought from 

 Kokstad, but their earlier association is not so evident. The larger 

 piece, now in Cape Town, was known to the Eev. C. D. Tonkin, a 

 former missionary at Matatiela, in 1878. He mentions it (in a MS. 

 in the South African Museum, dated St. Andrews, Pondoland East, 

 April 7, 1885) as having lain at a Basuto kraal, the headman of 

 which informed him that it had been found on a neighbouring hill. 

 One of the late Mr. Watermeyer's nephews remembers being told 

 by his uncle that this meteorite was found buried in the soil on 

 a kopje at the junction of the Mabele and Kenegha rivers, about 

 one hour from Matatiela; towards Ongeluk's Nek in the Drakens- 

 bergen. 



The history of the smaller iron, now in Vienna, is somewhat 

 more vague. A Mr. H. L. Eudlin, who wrote to the Curator of 

 the South African Museum in April 1885, enclosing the account 



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