152 Dr. Walter Flight — History of Meteorites. 



of the crater-ring. The outbursts from this mouth were from time 

 to time followed by the gushing forth of a little stream of lava from 

 a cleft on the Sciarra, a little below the northern rim of the crater. 

 The intervals between the explosions at the time of Abich's visit 

 appear to have been very constant. Besides the larger mouths, 

 there were numerous funiaroles within and about the crater. 



In June, 1844, the crater of Stromboli was visited by MM. de 

 Quatrefages, Edwards, and Blanchard. The first of these gives the 

 following description of the state of the volcano at that time. The 

 crater, which was well marked, presented several depressions, and 

 six very distinct mouths were clearly visible in it. Two of these 

 gave off steam exclusively. A third, On the right of the crater, pro- 

 duced an almost constant fountain of small, glowing fragments, 

 which fell back within it ; the action of this bocca was attended with 

 a singular noise. On the right, three other mouths gave rise to 

 intermittent explosions ; two of these always acting simultaneously, 

 at intervals of five or six minutes ; while the sixth mouth appeared 

 to be quite independent, and its much louder and more violent 

 explosions occurred at intervals of 10 or 12 minutes. The stones 

 thrown out by the latter rose to a height of more than 600 feet, 

 those from the other two intermittent mouths to less than half that 

 height. There was evidently a connexion between the first five 

 apertures, for the action of the three constantly discharging vents 

 was accelerated just before the explosions of the two smaller inter- 

 mittent mouths ; but the sixth and most powerful vent appeared to 

 produce its explosions quite independently of all the others. 

 (To be continued in our next Number.) 



II. — A Chapter in the History of Meteorites. 



By Walter Flight, D.Sc, F.G.S., 



Of the Department of Mineralogy, British Museum ; 

 Assistant Examiner in Chemistry, University of London. 



{Continued from page 123.) 



(PLATE IV.) 



1870. Meteoric Iron from Ovifak, Greenland. (Continued.) 



The following rocks from Disko Island have been examined by 

 Nauckhoff : 



I. Section of a six-sided basalt column from Brededal, east side of Skarfvefjell, 

 and about 10' E. of Godkavn; showing compact dark greyish-green ground-mass 

 with crypto-crystalline texture ; under the microscope crystals of a felspar, augite 

 and magnetite are recognized. Fusible before the blowpipe. — II. Basalt from the 

 east side of the ridge at Ovifak, where the iron and breccia were found. Fusible 

 before the blowpipe. — III. Eock occurring in rounded masses, with green foliated 

 crust, in the basalt ridge, and inclosing spangles and spherules of iron, some 6 — 7 

 mm. in diameter; these exhibit "Widmannstattian figures. Appears to be a very 

 finely granular mixture of a felspar with a small amount of a green mineral, prob- 

 ably augite, and imperfectly crystallized magnetite, which latter usually surrounds 

 the spangles of iron ; olivine is only occasionally met with, in grains the size of a 

 pea. Melts with difficulty before the blowpipe. — IV. Very hard brown- coloured 

 mass inclosing rock in which iron spangles are found ; it closely resembles III. The 

 ground-mass consists of a felspar, probably anorthite, the crystals of which are 

 occasionally large, and show marks of twinning, and a great number of reddish 



