Nov. 1st, 1887-] 



SCIENTIFIC NEWS. 



207 



METEORITES. 



WHEN Sir William Thomson gave his lecture on the 

 sun's heat at the Royal Institution, he showed 

 several fine specimens of meteorites, and through the kind- 



< — — — 5 centimetres. — — — > 



Fig. I. Meteorite which Fell at Pofsil, near 

 Glasgow. 



13^ centimetres. — — — — — — ; 



Fig. 2. 



Section of Meteorite found in the Desert of 

 Atacama, in South America. 



ness of the secretary we are now able to give illustrations 

 of them. The three meteorites shown in Figs, i, 2, and 

 3 are the property of the Hunterian Museum of the Uni- 

 versity of Glasgow, the specimen represented by Fig. i 

 being contained in the Hunterian collection, that by Fig. 2 

 in the Eck collection, and that by Fig. 3 in the Lanfine 

 collection, the scale of dimensions being given for each. 



The stone shown in Fig. i fell on the earth at Pofsil, in the 

 neighbourhood of Glasgow, on 5th April, 1804. Fig. 2 

 represents a section of the meteorite taken in the plane of 

 the longest rectangular axis, the bright markings being 

 large and well-formed crystals of olivine, embedded in a 



< — — — — 9j centimetres. — — — — > 

 Fig. 3. Slab of Crystallised Iron from Aerolite which 



FELL at LENARTO, HUNGARY. 



— — — 15 centimetres. ■ 



Fig. 4. Corrugated Meteorite which fell at 



MiDDLESBURGH. 



matrix of iron. This specimen was found in the Desert of 

 Atacama, in South America, and is believed to have fallen 

 there. In Fig. 3 is depicted the beautiful Widmanstiitten 

 marking characteristic of all meteoric iron. This splendidly 

 crystallised piece of iron is a slab cut out of the cele- 

 brated aerolite which fell at Lenarto, in Hungary. Figs. 

 4 and 5 represent two views of the curiously shaped 



