Intelligence and Miscellanies. 191 



Upon the whole, there seems no reason to doubt that it is 

 genuine tin. Respectfully yours, &.c. 



Edward Hitchcock. 



18. A minerulogical and chemical description of the Vir- 

 ginia Aerolite;* hy Charles Upham Shepard, Assistant to 

 the Professor of Chemistry and Mineralogy in Yale Col- 

 lege. — Since collections of meteoric stones have begun to 

 be formed, and a more nice attention to be bestowed upon 

 their differences and resemblances, our information concern- 

 ing their nature, as might have been expected, has been 

 greatly augmented ; and although we may still be far from 

 solving the curious problem of the origin of these singular 

 bodies, we are nevertheless certain, that a minute observa- 

 tion of all the facts connected with the subject, affords the 

 only rational promise of our ultimately attaining so desira- 

 ble an object. 



In giving a description of the Virginia aerolite, I shall in 

 the first place consider the specimen before me in relation to 

 its compound character, or, so to speak, as a rock ; and af- 

 terwards I shall attempt to point out the nature of the indi- 

 vidual substances of which it is composed. 



The weight of the fragment is a little short of two pounds, 

 which is about half that, as we are informed, of the mass 

 from which it was detached. That portion of the external 

 surface which remains in the specimen, indicates that the en- 

 tire piece was less oval in its figure than is usual in these 

 stones. Besides this difference in general shape, the surface 

 exhibits hollows and circular cavities, some of which are half 

 an inch in diameter and about the same in depth ; and is in- 

 vested with the black coating which always accompanies such 

 bodies, although this is interrupted in a few places, and no 

 where appears to have resulted from a very perfect fusion. 



Its interior, at first glance, reminds one very forcibly of 

 certain volcanic rocks. Its color is a bluish ash grey, inter- 

 spersed with a sprinkling of white, and here and there with 

 specks of brownish rust. It contains numerous ovoidal, ir- 

 regular shaped cavities, varying in size from one tenth to 

 half an inch in diameter, which are lined in many instances 

 with brilUant metallic crystals. Its compound character be- 



* Which fell seven miles from Richmond, Virg. June 4, 1828 — for the par- 

 ticulars, see Vol. 15, pa. 195 of this Journal. 



