Miscellanies. 385 



Malowetz of Skaiitz. A ploughman, having on the 19th of Septem- 

 ber 1829, accidentally alighted upon it with his plough, and supposing 

 the mass Avhich was afterwards found to weigh one hundred and three 

 pounds, to be an ordinary stone, he endeavored to lift it, and throw it 

 out ; but being surprised with the great Vv'eight, he thought it must be 

 a precious metal. A small bit of it, however, having been detached 

 by a blacksmith with a hammer, it was recognized to be iron. Dr. 

 Charles Claudi, an eminent lawyer of Prague, the proprietor of the 

 neighboring estate of Cykin, paying a visit to the baron, was shown 

 the mass, and as there are no iron works in the vicinity, he argued 

 that it might have had a meteoric origin. This was fully confirmed by 

 Professor Steinman's discovery of nickel in it, and by the peculiar 

 structure which is likewise detected in other kinds of meteoric iron 

 by etching a polished sui'face. Upon the application of these gentle- 

 men. Baron Malowetz presented the whole of this highly remarkable 

 object to the National PVluseum at Prague. 



There can be no doubt that this mass of iron has lain a long time 

 in the soil, the plough having passed over it for ages ; and it must be 

 ascribed only to the heavy rains of last summer, that, much soil 

 having been washed away, it came at last within the reach of the 

 plough. Its having been a long time exposed to the agency of the air 

 and weather, is also testijfied by a thick ci'ust of oxide, with which it 

 was covered, when first dug out. 



No conjectures can be made respecting the age of this mass. There 

 is indeed a notice by Marcus Marci De Krouland, that a metallic 

 mass had fallen from the sky in Bohemia, in the year 1618, but without 

 giving the locality where it had fallen. 



According to the account by Professor Zippe, the Bohumilitz mete- 

 oric iron is an irregular lump of a somewhat quadrangular shape. It 

 is marked on the surface with irregular roundish impressions, of the 

 same kind as other masses of native iron, having a meteoric origin. He 

 describes the color of the surface as clove-brown, with spots of ochre- 

 yellow, owing to the oxidation of the surface, which is covered with 

 a crust of the brown hydrate of the peroxide. Within, the color is 

 paler than the color of newly filed bar iron, but not so pale as that of 

 the Elbogen native iron. Professor Steinmann found the specific 

 gravity to be 7.146. On dissolving the substance in muriatic acid, hy- 

 dro-sulphuric acid was developed, which being introduced into a solu- 

 tion of acetate of lead, gave a small quantity of a precipitate of sul- 

 phuret of lead. 



A small residue of 1.13 per cent, of the whole which was left was 

 insoluble even in nitro muriatic acid. It proved to be a mixture of 



