J, B. Gregory — Neic French Meteorites, 553 



Toad, near to a tree i;nder whicli a shepherd named Favier had taken 

 refuge. This man hearing — to use his own words — '■' something 

 snore which came from the heavens," observed the fall and found 

 the stone, which had forced itself in spite of the hardness of the 

 road into the soil, it is not stated to what depth — probably no great 

 distance, owing to the fragile character of the meteorite; he after- 

 wards drew it out with his stick, the end of which was stated to 

 have been burnt by the heat. This is probably a fancy, as the nature 

 of the stone would preclude the idea of any great heat being present, 

 it being essentially a stony meteorite, containing apparently no free 

 nickel-iron, and consequently less likely to be hot, or so hot as 

 meteorites containing much metallic particles, they being better 

 conductors of heat. The man states that having allowed it to cool 

 he took it to his master's house, where it was broken to find out 

 what was inside, and then seeing it was "a stone like other stones," 

 it was thrown upon a shelf and forgotten. In 1845 the Pasteur 

 Muston of Bordeaux, who was interested in mineralogy, happening 

 to hear of the circumstances of the fall, went and examined it, 

 afterwards purchasing it, and who had retained it, till it came into 

 my possession. No other stone was found, or believed to have 

 fallen, nor has any public notice appeared of the circumstances 

 attending its fall. It was found by simple peasants who saw 

 nothing very wonderful in it. 



This very interesting stone at present weighs 567 grammes, 

 though probably at the time of its fall it must have weighed about 

 800 grammes, a portion being broken off by the shepherd who 

 secured it, and which is probably lost. It is of an extremely fragile 

 nature and more like that very rare type the Bustee meteorite. It 

 has a highly crystalline structure, exhibiting broad cleavages of an 

 almost white mineral, it has also a very brecciated appearance, but 

 does not seem to contain any of the peculiar mineral named osbornite 

 by Prof. Maskelj^ne, who first described this mineral in the before- 

 named stone of Bustee ; it contains certain small brown patches 

 which may prove to be osbornite on careful examination. The 

 crust is extremely thin, of a pale brown colour, and somewhat 

 vitreous and sufficiently translucent to show the brecciated structure 

 of the stone within, in this respect it also resembles the Bustee 

 meteorite ; some parts of this crust exhibit a slight iridescence. 

 In form it is somewhat oval, rather flattish, and pitted with the 

 frequent pittings characteristic of many meteorites as well as meteoric 

 irons. 



II. Commune of Mornans (Dkome), France. 



This meteorite fell in September, 1875, in the Commune of 

 Mornans, Canton of Bordeaux, Department of Drome, France, the 

 exact date apparently is not known ; it is said to have fallen in calm 

 clear weather, and followed an explosion which was preceded by a 

 gust of wind, and gave during its fall a harmonious sound compared 

 to that of an organ ; many minute details seem to have either been 

 forgotten or were not observed at the time of the fall. 



The stone probably weighed about 1300 grammes, and when it 



