THE METEORIC PERID0TITE8. — SAXON ITE. 91 



show that the olivine and enstatite crj'stallize out of the base, and that in the state of 

 incipient crystallization these minerals, coupled with the base, assume the forms that 

 have been taken for organic ones. The irregular distribution and relations of the Ixise to 

 the crystal grains show that even apparent organic forms an; wanting except in selected 

 cases. The mineral constitution of the meteorite is such that it could not have Ijeen 

 exposed to air and water without alteration of the minerals, Ijut must have been formed 

 under such conditions that those agencies could not have produced their customary 

 effects, i.e., under the action of heat. Action that was sufficient to crystallize enstatite 

 and olivine out of a fossiliferous deposit, surely would have been sufficient to obliterate 

 every trace of such delicate microscopic organisms as these supposed corals and crinoid.s. 

 If these forms were organic, then, as Professor J. Lawrence Smith has justly ob.served, 

 carbonate of lime ought to be found in them, which is not the case. The entire mass of 

 the meteorite is made up of enstatite, olivine, iron, base, pyrrhotite, and apparently a 

 magnetite. 



Its chondri appear, with possibly a few exceptions, to be secretions in the mass 

 formed by the tendency to crystallization, as was pointed out in the case of the preceding 

 meteorite, since they pass as a continuous mass into the surrounding material, and have 

 not the well-defined boundaries of a foreign or included mass. The possible exceptions 

 are of a few forms that appear as if, while in a liquid or plastic state, they might have 

 been inclosed in a liquid or plastic mass, and partly united with it. The supposed frag- 

 mental portions, or the grains, appear to me to be formed by crystallization, the same as 

 the grains are formed in common peridotic rocks, and not by attrition. Some of the 

 chondri are deformed by others, as would be natural in such a crystallizing mass. 



Gnadenfrei, Silesia. 



This meteorite has been described by Professors J. G. Galle and A. von Lasaulx as 

 having a chondritic structure. The groundmass is colored light-gray, and contains 

 numerous spherules, colored white, gray, or dark-gray. Particles of iron of varying size 

 occur, while under the lens there are clearly seen little granular particles of bronze- 

 colored pyrrhotite and brass-yellow spangles of troilite. Rusty -brown spots occur, aris- 

 ing from the rapid oxidation of the iron. 



Under the microscope, the thin sections were found to contain nickeliferous iron, 

 pyrrhotite, troilite, chromite, enstatite, and olivine. The iron is in irregular pronged 

 masses. 



Our authors separate the troilite from pyrrhotite, the former being rare in little 

 yellowish grains, and the latter more abundant, in small granular aggregates having a 

 bronze color, also in little grains in the silicates and in the iron. Tiie chromite is in 

 small octahedrons in the olivine. The enstatite appears both in the groundmass and in 

 the spherules. It contains inclusions of brown and colorless glass with fixed bubbles, 

 and black metallic particles ; also a black dust-like substance. All the inclusions are 

 more or less elongated in the direction of the cleavage lines. 



The olivine occurs both in the groundmass and in the spherules. It is in rounded 

 grains or crystal fragments of irregular contour. The grains are colorless except when 

 discolored by the oxidation of the metallic iron. The olivine contains brown glass 

 inclusions with one or two bubbles, also a black dust-like substance, the same as that 

 inclosed in the enstatite. 



