Br. Walter Flight — Eistory of Meteorites. 27 



on the following Wednesday discovered a ' meteorite ' which weighed 

 more than 1 lb. avoirdupois. "It had not penetrated the ground 

 more than half an inch." From the description of what he found, it 

 appears that he picked up a nodule of inarcasite, which had probably 

 been left exposed on the surface after heavy rain had washed away 

 the surrounding soil. 



1869, December 25th.— Murziik, Fezzan [Lat. 26° N. ; Long. 12 E. 



of Paris]. 1 



The letter of M. Coumbray, communicated to the Geological 

 Society by Mr. E. H. Scott, announced the fall of an aerolite, or 

 bolide, at Murzuk, in the presence of a group of Arabs. The bolide 

 on falling is described as having "exploded with a sound resembling 

 pistol shots and a strong odour." The intelligence was communicated 

 to the Vienna Academy by Haidinger, and to the Berlin Academy by 

 Dove ; and Mr. Greg, in the British Association Beport, states that 

 it fell on the 26th December, and that it weighed 6000 lbs. 



It appears highly probable, however, from a statement laid before 

 the Berlin Academy by G. Bose 2 at a more recent date, that no 

 meteoric fall took place. According to letters received from the 

 Austrian Consul at Tripoli and Hag Ibraim Ben Alua, Shiek of 

 Murzuk, a corporal, who was on guard at the gate of the town on 

 the night of the 25th, heard a series of explosions, like the discharge 

 of nine muskets. Hearing the alarm, the officer collected five men, 

 and, sallying forth, they met a man, who stated that the noise was not 

 the report of guns, but the explosion of a meteor, which burst in the 

 direction of a little village called ISTamus. The writers of the letters 

 were of opinion that no meteorite had been found. 



Meteoric Iron. Found in 1869 or 1870. — Shingle Springs, 

 Eldorado County, California. 3 



This mass, said to be the first discovered in California, was rescued 

 in 1871 from the forge of a smith, who found it in a field near Shingle 

 Springs. It weighed about S5 lbs., and its largest dimensions were 

 24 and 29 cm. It is very homogeneous, only two small masses of 

 pyrites (troilite ?) being visible on one of the sides. The crust to a 

 depth of from 4 to 5 cm. is remarkably hard. The density 7-875 

 (that of some pieces removed by the planing tool being 8-024:) is 

 above the average density of meteoric iron, and this is most probably 

 due to the presence of an unusually large proportion, more than 

 17 per cent., of nickel, as the subjoined analysis indicates. 



Irou 



... 81-480 



Carbon 



... 0-071 



Nickel 



... 17-173 



Siliciura 



... 0032 



Cobalt 



... 0-604 



Phosphorus 



... 0-308 



Aluminium 



... 0088 



Sulphur 



... 0-012 



Chromium 



... 020 



Potassium 



... 0-026 



Magnesium 



0010 







Calcium 



... 0-163 





99-987 



1 M. Coumbray, Jour. Geol. Soo., xxvi. 415. Geol. Mag., VII. 236. — R. P. 

 Greg. Rep. Brit. Assoc. 1871. — Bullet. Meteorologico, ix. 4. — G. Eose. Monatsber. 

 Berlin Ak., November, 1870. — G. Tscliermak. Sitz. Wien. Ah. JuDe, 1870. 



3 G.Rose. Monatsber. Berlin Ak., 1871, 804. 



3 B. Silliman. Amer. Jour, So. [3] vi. 18. 



