16 



Dr. Walter Flight — Historij of Meteorites. 



fine examples at the Eocca Piramida in Lipari and on the coast of 

 Salina between La Malfa and La Capo (see Fig. 5). 



Fig. 5. — Interesting section at La Capo, the north-east point of Salino, exhibiting tuffs 

 traversed by numerous dykes of lava and overlaid by stratified materials derived 

 from them. (Raised-beach.) 



We must postpone to a future communication the description of the 

 remarkable linear arrangement of the volcanic vents of the Lipavi 

 Islands, when we hope also to give an account of some of the character- 

 istics and products of the last series of igneous outbursts in the district. 



(To be continued in our next Number.) 



II. — A Chapter in the History oe Meteorites. 

 By Walter Flight, D.Sc, 

 Of the Department of Mineralogy, British Museum ; 

 Assistant Examiner in Chemistry, University of London. 



Introduction. 

 iY the publication of Die Chemische Natur der Meteoriten, in 

 1870, Professor Eammelsberg accomplished the task which 

 he had set himself, that of presenting to students of mineralogy a care- 

 ful digest of the scattered contributions of the time to the literature 

 of meteorites. Since that date no similar work of reference has been 

 issued. Buchner's papers, intituled Die Meteoriten in Sammlungen, 

 the first of which was issued at an earlier date than Eammelsberg's 

 memoir, do not apparently continue to be published, the last one 

 having appeared in Poggendorff's Annalen in 1869. It is from 

 this period that I propose to take up the thread, and to give in 

 the following pages a digest of all that has been published on 

 the subject of meteorites since the beginning of that year. In 

 this time many important contributions to this branch of minera- 

 logical science have been made ; highly interesting meteoric falls 

 have taken place, among them it will here suffice to mention that 

 of Hessle, in Sweden ; remarkable cosmical masses have been 

 discovered, of which none are more curious than the colossal 

 meteoric irons of Ovifak, in Greenland ; and the presence of new 

 meteoric minerals determined, such as the calcium sulphide of the 

 Busti aerolite and the rhombic form of silicic acid in the Breitenbach 



