Dr. Waiter Flight—On Meteorites. 59 
IIJ.—Supriement to A CHAPTER In THE History or METEORITES. 
By Water Fricut, D.Sc., F.G.S. 
: (Continued from Dec. II. Vol. IX. p. 509.) 
Found 1854.—Cranbourne, near Melbourne, Victoria, S. Australia.! 
Two masses of meteoric iron were discovered in Victoria in 1854, 
and they were first reported upon by the late W. Haidinger in the 
Sitzungsberichte Akad. Wiss.” in 1861. The smaller block became 
the property of Mr. Abel, the engineer; the larger one was pur- 
chased by Mr. A. Bruce, now of Chislehurst. It appears that Mr. 
Bruce had seen a piece of iron, which had the appearance of being 
meteoric iron, in the fireplace of a squatter there, and he asked the 
man if any more of that kind was to be met with in that neighbour- 
hood. He was conducted to a spot in the adjoining parish of Sher- 
wood, where an irregular spur of iron projected from the surface, 
and he there and then purchased it with the intention of presenting 
it to the British Museum. Later on, when they proceeded to dig 
round it and uncover its sides, they were astonished at its large size. 
Various sums of money were offered Mr. Bruce for the splendid 
block, but his one answer to all such offers was, “No; I have 
bought it for a sovereign; and I am going to give it to the British 
Museum.” As has been stated, a point only of the iron was above 
the surface. A photograph was taken on the spot by my late friend, 
Mr. R. Daintree, the Agent-General for Queensland, after the tertiary 
sandstone inclosing it had been removed. It is the same sandstone 
which crops out at Broughton, with basalt from 12-18 feet below, 
as on the coast at Western Port. Bruce states that the lower bed is 
Silurian, and that the block of iron penetrated a foot or more into it. 
Harly in 1861 the spot was visited by Dr. Neumayer and Mr. 
Abel. One mass was found to weigh several hundredweight; the 
other from three to four tons. Their relative positions is shown in 
an accompanying small sketch-map of the district. They were 
found to be beyond all question native, or rather meteoric, iron 
covered with a crust of the usual characters, in which the customary 
hollows were not wanting. This statement is, however, somewhat 
misleading. No crust corresponding to that of magnetite, such as is 
presented by the Rowton siderite (which see), is met with; but, in 
place, a layer of considerable thickness of hydrated oxides and mag- 
netite, indicating a long period during which the blocks had lain in 
the earth. The relative position of the two masses was 8. 30° W. 
and N. 34° H. (magnetic declination), and they were 3-6 miles (60 
miles to a degree at the equator) apart. Both lay close to the 
surface, and were only so deeply imbedded that a point protruded 
from the soil. The latitude of the smaller block, which lies north of 
the other, is 38° 8’ and long. 145° 22’ E.; that of the larger being 
38° 11’ or long. 145° 20’ E. of Greenwich. The height above sea- 
level of the former was 107 feet, and of the latter 127 feet. 
1 Walter Flight, Philosophical Transactions, 1882. 
_ * W. Haidinger, Sitzungsberichte Akad. Wiss, xliy. 18th April, 6th June, and 
17th October, 1861; xlv. 65, 9th January, 1862. 
