206 BASALT. 



Many changes in the arrangement of the meteorites may hereafter be 

 made by the writer, if ever opportunity should be afforded for an ex- 

 tended microscopic study of them. At present he has tried to arrange 

 them as best he could with the means at his command. 



Although all the chemical analyses found of the basaltic meteorites have 

 been arranged in a table, they are too few and too imperfect for any satisfac- 

 tory discussion. 



Section II. — The Pscudo- Meteorites. 



A NUMBER of supposed meteorites have been described, which so far 

 as their general characters and chemical composition show, belong to the 

 species trachyte and rhyolite. For these the meteoric origin has been 

 denied in every case, and perhaps the Igast stone is the only one which 

 has any claims to be considered even of doubtful meteoric origin. 



Waterville, 3fame. 



This pseudo-meteorite has been studied by the present writer. It is in the form 

 of a small triangular cinder-like mass, cellular, laminated, and on the fresh fracture, 

 of an ash-gray color. The laminated appearance is produced by a series of flattened 

 cells surrounded by a black vitreous mass. 



The original surfaces are coated with a gray, red-brown, and bluish-black crust formed 

 by fusion. 



It was claimed that this stone was picked up shortly after falling, hence it became 

 necessary to examine its characters to see how long it might have been exposed to 

 atmospheric action. The portion of the fused crust which lay uppermost on the 

 ground is seen under a lens to have been worn and polished the same as siliceous 

 rocks are when long exposed to rain ; while the remaining parts are found to be 

 coated to some extent by earthy material, the same as rocks are when lying in a dry, 

 sandy soil. Its cavities contain in places a fine, brown, matted mass, formed by the 

 fibres of growing plants, and under the microscope their vegetable character can 

 readily be distinguished. 



The specimen, then, when picked up by Captain Crosby, could not have been a 

 newly detached mass, but had been for a long while partially buried in the soil, 

 and of course could not have been a portion of the meteor seen shortly before tlie 

 specimen was found. It remains, then, to consider the very improbable supposition — 

 is it a fragment of a meteorite which fell at some former period ? Microscopically 

 it is seen to be a cellular, glassy mass, which has begun to devitrify, and presents 

 the appearance of a slag-like body which has been long exposed to the action of 

 atmospheric agencies. The sections were cut across the lamination, and showed a 

 fluidal structure parallel to it. A few quartz grains which were cracked and fis- 

 sured were seen. Near the fissures numerous ferruginous globulites had been de- 

 veloped, and the quartz showed evident signs of having been exposed to strong heat. 



