598 Dr. Walter Flight — History of Meteorites. 



differ from others which have fallen in Piedmont during the first 

 half of the present century at Cereseto (1840, July 17th), and at 

 Guiliana Vecchio (1860, February 2nd) ; and finds them very similar 

 in characters to the meteorites which fell at Oviedo, Spain (1856, 

 August 5th), and in the Commune des Ormes, Yonne, France 

 (1857, October 1st). 



1868, March 20th.— Daniel's Kuil, N.N.E. of Griqua Town, Griqua 

 Territory, South Africa. 1 



This meteorite fell near a Griqua at Daniel's Kuil, who picked it 

 up while warm ; he gave it to Captain Nicolas Waterboer, the 

 Griqua Chief, from whom Gregory obtained it. It was broken into 

 two parts when it reached his hands, and has since unfortunately 

 been divided into several more ; it weighed 21b. 5oz. The crust 

 has a dull black colour; immediately below it for a thickness of 

 about -Jth of an inch the stone has a browner colour than the in- 

 terior, the result of oxidation. The rock has a dark grey colour and 

 a fine granular texture, and encloses a very considerable amount of 

 nickel-iron in a finely divided condition, as well as particles of 

 troilite and schreibersite. The rounded grains so commonly pre- 

 sent in meteoric rock are not seen. 



This meteorite has been examined by Church, who finds it to 

 possess the specific gravity 3-657 to 3*678, and the following com- 

 position : 



Nickel-iron 2972 



Troilite 6-02 



Schreibersite 1-59 



Silica and Silicates 61-53 



Carbon, Oxygen, other constituents, and loss 1-14 



100-00 

 The nickel-iron contains : 



Iron = 94-72; Nickel = 5-18. Total = 100-00. 

 The per-centage of troilite is based on a sulphur determination made 

 in a separate portion; the schreibersite -'was approximately esti- 

 mated by calculating its amount as being ten times that of the un- 

 oxidised phosphorus in the stone" — a novel method which can hardly 

 be considered a satisfactory one. The rocky portion of the stone, 

 constituting nearly two-thirds of the mass, does not appear to have 

 been submitted to detailed analysis, although we are told that the 

 silicates consist chiefly of olivine and labradorite, " the former species 

 constituting by far the larger portion of the powder unaffected by 

 dilute acids." Olivine, as is well known, is the meteoric silicate 

 par excellence which is broken up by such reagents, being easily acted 

 upon even by dilute hydrochloric acid. Church does not state whether 

 he succeeded in detecting the presence of alumina in this meteorite, 

 although he numbers labradorite among its constituent minerals : 

 while the occurrence of silica, as such, in a meteorite is so very rare, 

 having as yet been isolated and submitted to analysis in one instance 



1 A. H. Church. Jour. Chem. Soc, 1869 [2], vii. 22. Jour. Trakt. Chem., 1869, 

 cvi. 379.— See also J. R. Gregory, Geol. Mag. Yol. V. p. 531. 



