Dr. Walter Flight — History of Meteorites. 263 



1874, May 20th.— Virba, near Vidin, Turkey. 1 



This meteorite fell with a loud noise, and entered the ground to the 

 depth of one metre ; it weighed 3 - 60 kilog. A fragment presented 

 to the Paris Collection by His Excellency Safvet Pacha is covered 

 with the usual dull black crust : a fractured surface shows the 

 meteorite to have a light-grey colour and a very finely grained 

 texture, with grains of metal distributed through the mass ; in 

 certain parts spherular structure is apparent. In a microscopic section 

 it was found that the transparent and almost entirely colourless 

 stony particles act on polarized light. 



The metallic portion is nickel-iron, the presence of an iron sulphide 

 is recognized by the action of acid, and numerous small black grains 

 of chromite are distributed throughout the stone. A part of the 

 siliceous constituents gelatinize with acid, indicating the presence of 

 olivine ; and a residue, which resists the action and constitutes less 

 than one-half of the weight of the stone, is believed to be enstatite. 



The Virba stone belongs to the large class of which the meteorite 

 of Luce, Sarthe, France (1768, September 13th), may be taken as the 

 type ; and is most closely allied to the aerolites of Bachmut, Island 

 of Oesel, St. Denis Westrem, Buschof, Dolgaja Wolja, and those of 

 other localities mentioned in Daubree's paper. 



1874, August 1st, 11 p.m. — Hexham, Northumberland. 2 



In The English Mechanic is a letter from a person signing himself 

 " Ealph Lowdon," of Gateshead, stating that at the above time 

 and place "a massive ball of intense light," accompanied by 

 other pear-shaped balls of fire, was seen to drop towards the earth. 

 The aerolite, which is alleged to have fallen in an orchard on 

 the bank of the North Tyne, at no great distance from Hexham, 

 is stated to have been found the following day at 9 a.m. at a depth 

 of 14 inches in the soil, still quite warm, and to have weighed 

 301 |lbs. Letters directed to the above are returned by the 

 Post-office authorities, while a courteous reply which I received 

 from the Eev. H. C. Barker, of Hexham, states that the 

 editor of The English Mechanic must have been misinformed. The 

 rev. gentleman writes : " To make assurance doubly sure, I have 

 made inquiry in several quarters, and cannot find even the slightest 

 foundation for the statement." 



1875, February 12th, 1030 p.m.— West Liberty, Iowa. 3 



An account of a very sensational kind is given in the Dubuque 

 Times of a brilliant meteor which was seen at Iowa City and other 

 points of Central Iowa at this date. Its course was from S.E. towards 

 N.W. It had apparently about half the diameter of the moon, and 

 was accompanied by a beautiful train ; it was seen to separate 



1 G. A. Dauhree. Compt. rend., lxxix. 276. 



2 The English Mechanic, August 21st, 1874. 



3 The Engineer, March 26th, 1875, 217. Amer. Jour. Sc.,ix. 407. Compt. rend., 

 lxxs. 1175. 



