Dr. Walter Flight— History of Meteorites. 219 



had, at one time, lifted it easily from the ground ; now, no single 

 man can carry it. Not very long before Captain Butler saw this 

 meteorite, it had been removed from the hill on which it had so long 

 rested and been brought to Victoria. When the Indians found that it 

 had been taken away, they were loud in the expression of their regret. 

 The old medicine-men declared that its removal would bring great 

 misfortune, and that war, disease, and dearth of buffalo would afflict 

 the tribes of the Saskatchewan. This was not a prophecy made after 

 the outbreak of small-pox which was devastating the district when 

 Captain Butler was there, for in a magazine published by the Wes- 

 leyan Society of Canada, there appears a letter from the missionary, 

 announcing the predictions of the medicine-men a year prior to Cap- 

 tain Butler's visit, and concluding with an expression of thankful- 

 ness that their dismal prognostications had not been realized. A few 

 months later, however, brought, all the three evils upon the Indians. 

 Never, probably, since the first trader had traversed their land had 

 so many afflictions of war, famine, and plague fallen upon the Crees 

 and the Blaekfeet as during the year succeeding the removal of their 

 Manito-stone from the lone hill-top upon which the skies had cast it. 

 This iron has not yet been analysed. 



1871.— Rockingham Co., N. Carolina.i 



This meteoric, iron, a small specimen of which is in the Vienna 

 collection, is described as exhibiting the ordinary lainellaa and figures. 

 It contains iron chloride in the form of a solid green substance 

 enclosed in the metal itself. This compound was first observed by 

 J. L. Smith in 1852 in the Tazewell iron. 



1872. July 23rd. 520 p.m. (Tours mean time).— Lance and 

 Authon, Canton of St.-Amand, Loir-et-Cher, France. 3 



An observer, reports M. De Tastes, stationed between Champigny 

 and Brisay, in the Canton lTle-Bouchard, noticed during full sun- 

 shine a sudden increase of light, and raising his eyes saw a brilliant 

 meteor, which was of a rosy orange colour, and appeared to be double, 

 traversing the heavens with enormous velocity from S.W. to N.E. 

 Its brilliancy suddenly increased as it separated into two luminous 

 globes and passed out of sight in the direction of Tours. At 5-26 he 

 heard a sharp sound, unattended by an echo. The inhabitants of the 

 Communes Monthodon, Neuville, Chateaurenant, Beaumont-la-Bonce, 

 and Dammarie, north of Tours, were alarmed by a tremendous ex- 

 plosion, which shook the houses, and a small cloud of smoke was 

 seen in the direction of Saint-Amand, still further north. Had this 

 happened at night instead of in an atmosphere illumined by the 



1 G. Tschermak. Mineralog. Mitt., Jahrgang 1872.— J. L. Smith, Am. Jour. Sc, 

 1874, vii. 395. 



2 L' Union liberate, Tours, 26th July, 1872.— Le Loir, 4th August, 1872.— M. De 

 Tastes. Compt. rend. , lxxv. 273. — G. A. Daubree. Compt. rend. , lxxv. 308 and 465. — 

 G. A. Daubree and M. Jolly. Compt. rend., lxxv. 505.— P. de Fleury. Note surles 

 Meteores d'origine cosmique a propos de l'Aerolithe du 23 Juillet, 1872. Blois : 

 Imp. P. Dufresne, 1872. — G. A. Daubree. Compt. rend., lxxix. 277. — L'Institut, 

 August 5th, 1874. — La Nature, ii. 159. 



