62 Dr. Walter Flight— On Meteorites. 



The soluble silicate is an olivine in wliich the ratio of MgO to Fe 

 is about 4:1; the insoluble is a bronzite ; and in addition to the 

 minerals already mentioned, the presence in the Castalia stones of 

 small amount of iron sulphide and anorthite was recognized. 



1874. ITovember 26, 10.30 a.m.— Kerilis, Commune de Mael- 

 Pestivien, Canton de Callac (C6tes-du-Nord).' 



A great noise, lasting two minutes, and resembling a peal of 

 thunder, was heard at this date at Mael-Pestivien, and for ten 

 kilometres around. At the same instant a workman near the Yillage 

 of Kerilis saw the earth struck, at a spot 12 metres distant, by what 

 he believed to be thunder. He visited the spot the next day, and 

 found a meteorite at a depth of 0-78 metre. The stone weighed 

 5"00U kilogrammes, and is covered with a remarkably thick black 

 crust : a number of fragments were detached from the stone till its 

 weight was reduced to 4'200 kilogrammes ; it then passed into the 

 hands of a clergyman, who bought it and presented it to the 

 Natural History Museum of Paris. 



A freshly broken surface of the stone shows a mottled and striated 

 surface, with metallic grains of nickel iron ; the surface is of a deep 

 grey colour with ochre-coloured spots, due doubtless to traces of iron 

 chloride. The individual grains vary in size; some, the largest, are 

 chalk- white, the most numerous are of an ashy-grey ; here and there 

 rounded grains (the chondra of Gustav Eose) are apparent, as well 

 as yellow or bronzy grains of pyrrhotine. The grains of nickel iron 

 are very small. The density of the meteorite is 3 '51. By the action 

 of hydrogen chloride 60 per cent, of the stone dissolves : this consists 

 of olivine, nickel iron, and pyrrhotine ; the residue under the micro- 

 scope is found to consist of a great number of crystalline grains, 

 much acted upon by polarised light, and some of which show the 

 forms of the prism ; others show the cleavage which indicates 

 enstatite. Besides these are black grains of chromite with an 

 octahedral contour. 



This stone most closely resembles those of Limerick (Adare) which 

 fell 1813, September 10th, and Ohaba, Siebenbourg, 18(37, October 

 10th, and belongs to the group of Sporadosideres and the sub-group 

 Oligosideres. 



Found 1874.— Waeonda, Mitchel Co., Kansas.^ [Lat. 39° 20', 

 Long. 98° lO'.J 



This meteorite was found in 1874, lying above ground upon the 

 slope of a ravine about two miles from the village of Waeonda. 

 Fragments amounting to about one-half of the stone were removed 

 at the time ; the remainder, weighing about 58 lb., is partially 

 covered with a black crust. The freshness of the original fracture, 

 at the time when the stone was submitted to examination, points to 

 the fall being one of recent date. 



1 Ibid. p. 28. M. Daubree, Compt. rend. 1880, xci. 28. 



2 C. U. Shepard, Amer. Journ. He. 1876, xi. 473. See also J. L. Smith, Amer. 

 Journ. Sc. 1877, March, xiii. 



