Dr. Walter Flight— History of Meteorites. 401 



III. — A Chapter in the History of Meteorites. 

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



• Of the Department of Mineralogy, British Museum. 

 {Continued from page 372.) 

 (PLATE XI.) 



Found 1840. — Hemalga, Desert of Tarapaca, Chili. 1 



Greg, 2 and likewise Heddle, found cavities in certain portions of 

 this iron, some of the size of a pea, which are filled with metallic 

 lead ; this is the only instance where that element has been met with 

 in a meteorite. Dr. Lawrence Smith has recently examined several 

 specimens cut from the original mass, and is of opinion that the lead 

 is altogether foreign to the iron, being doubtless derived from material 

 with which the block was probably treated by the original discoverers 

 for the purpose of extracting some noble metal from it. The lead, 

 he finds, occurs only in cavities near the surface of the mass, which 

 have channels of more or less size leading to the surface. In pieces 

 of the iron detached from the interior of the block and free from 

 fissures no lead could be discovered. 



1842, June 4th. — Aumieres, Dep. de la Lozere, France. 3 



In an interesting series of papers on the study of rocks, especially 

 as regards the analogies in point of structure and mineral composition 

 which are to be traced between the terrestrial rocks and those met 

 with in meteorites, Meunier has adopted the following classification 

 for the latter series : 1. Normal ; 2. Brecciated ; 3. Metamorphic ; 

 4. Eruptive ; 5. Eocks traversed with veins (filonniennes concre- 

 tionnees) ; and 6. Volcanic. 4 The iron of Deesa (which see) he 

 regards as an example of an eruptive meteorite, the stone of Chanton- 

 nay represents the class with veins entirely rocky. The veins of cosmi- 

 cal rocks show as many varieties as terrestrial rocks. The upheaval of 

 rocks on our globe presupposes the existence of faults, that is to say, 

 of vents which establish a communication between the earth's interior 

 and the atmosphere. Faults are recognized by the throws which the 

 rocks constituting their two sides have undergone ; these rocks, 

 although preserving their continuity, are shifted vertically in masses 

 that may be very considerable. The more the surface of these faults 

 shows traces of violent friction, the more they become polished, 

 channelled, or striated. In the same way meteorites in a number of 

 cases exhibit true faults, with throws and polished surfaces. In the 

 meteorite of Aumieres, of which a representation is given on the 

 next page, one fault is seen to cut another again to which it gives a 

 downthrow of several centimetres. 5 



1 J. L. Smith. Amer. Jour. Sc., 1870, xlix. 331. 



2 B. P. Greg. Phil. Mag. [4], x. 12.— Amer. Jour. 8c., xxiii. 118. 



3 S. Meunier. Les Pierres qui tombent du Ciel. La Nature, 1873, i. 403. 



4 This classification is, it is to be presumed, merely tentative. 



6 The second fault is described in Meunier' s paper as being above on the left-hand 

 side of the figure in a position nearly horizontal, and continued below on the right 

 parallel to the first direction, being thrown down more than five cm. by the great 



DECADE II. — VOL. II. — NO. IX. 26 



