Dr. Walter Flight — History of Meteorites. 157 



de 1872). For figures of these implements see MaUriaax pour Vkis- 

 toire primitive et naturelle de V Homme. 9 Annee, 2 e Serie, Tome IV. 

 2e Livraison, 1873, 65. 



Cryoconite found 1870, July 19th— 25th, on inland ice, east of 

 Auleitsivik Fjord, Disko Bay, Greenland.— Meteoric metallic 

 particles found in snow, which fell: — 1.) 1871, December — 

 Stockholm.— 2.) 1872, March 13th— Evoia, Filmland.— 3.) 1872, 

 August 8th— Lat. 80° N. ; Long. 13° E.— 4.) 1872, September 

 2nd— Lat. 80° N.; Long. 15° E. 1 



Early in December, 1871, there was a heavier fall of snow in 

 the neighbourhood of Stockholm than any that had occurred there 

 within the memory of living persons ; and it presented to Norden- 

 skjold an opportunity of determining whether the snow brought 

 cosmical matter to the earth's surface. A cubic metre of apparently 

 pure snow, collected towards the end of the fall, left on melting a 

 small black residue. From some of this substance, when heated, 

 a liquid product distilled over ; a portion when burnt left a red ash ; 

 while a magnet extracted particles which, when rubbed in an agate 

 mortar, exhibited metallic characters, and on being treated with acid 

 proved to be iron. Although the possibility must be admitted 

 that this material may have been derived from the chimneys and 

 iron roofs of the city, already covered with a thick layer of snow, 

 the result was sufficiently interesting to make it desirable that a 

 similar experiment should be tried with snow falling remote from 

 towns. For this purpose snow was collected on the 13th March, 

 1872, by Dr. Karl Nordenskjold at Evoia, in Finnland, to the north 

 of Helsingfors, and lying in the centre of a large forest. It was 

 taken from off the ice of the Bautajerwi, at a spot which is separated 

 by a dense wood from the houses of that northern station. When 

 melted, this snow yielded a soot-like residue, which under the micro- 

 scope was found to consist not only of a black carbonaceous sub- 

 stance, but white or yellowish-white granules, and from it the magnet 

 removed black grains, that when rubbed in a mortar were seen to 

 be iron. Here again the material was too small in amount to allow 

 of a determination of the presence of nickel and cobalt ; in other 

 words, to establish the meteoric origin of the metal. The Arctic 

 Expedition of 1872 presented an opportunity for the collection of 

 snow in a region as far removed as possible from human habitation. 

 On the 8th August, the snow covering the drift-ice at Lat. 80° N. and 

 Long. 13° E., was observed to be thickly covered with small black 

 particles, while in places these penetrated to a depth of some inches 

 the granular mass of ice into which the underlying snow had been 

 converted. Magnetic particles were abundant, and their power to 

 reduce copper sulphate was established. Again, on the 2nd September, 

 at Lat. 80° N. and Long. 15° E., the ice-field was found covered 



1 A. E. Nordenskjold. Redogbrelse for en Expedition till Grouland ar 1870, 28. 

 (See also Geol. Mag. IX. 356.) Compt. rend., lxxvii. 463; Jour. Prakt. Chem., 

 ix. 356. Pogg. Ami., cli. 154. 



