Dr. Walter Flight— On Meteorites. Ill 



sometimes, though rarely, nucleus lies on nucleus and cover on 

 cover, in proof of the simultaneous origin of the system. 



From the main strikings of the four systems, not alone parallel, 

 but small plates lying irregularly overlaid occur in the ground-mass, 

 and to these is due the peculiar play of light of that part of the 

 iron. Troilite occurs in rounded or lenticular masses, some 2 ctm. 

 in diameter ; but none is found in the lamellae systems. 



The largest of the sections does not vary very much (about 13°) 

 from the position of a leucitohedral face ; three distinctly marked 

 lamellce systems cross it at angles of 70°, 61° and 49°. For the face 

 (533) the corresponding values are : — 



65°-4, 0°, 65°-4, 49.°2 (0° + 65°-4 = 65°-4) 



The drawings of these sections are to be published later on. 



1876, January 5tli, 10-30 p.m. — Iowa and Missouri. 



This meteor, according to Mr. Irish's letter and accompanying 

 map, v^as witnessed over an area extending from Cass, in Iowa, to 

 Grundy, in Missouri. It appeared to descend almost perpendicularly, 

 and was a very brilliant meteor, and a very noisy one also. A 

 series of reports, twenty-two in number, were heard during its 

 transit from Cass to Gi-rundy. The rumbling thunder of its artillery, 

 together with its flashes of brilliant light, brought people from their 

 beds with an apprehension that the great Civil War had broken out 

 afresh. Its time of flight over the area indicated was not more than 

 five seconds, and the light it emitted is said to have equalled that of 

 noonday. None of the meteorites which must have fallen have been 

 found, for the reasons already referred to when speaking of the 

 detonating meteor of December 27th. 



1876, January 31st, 530 p m. — Louisville, Kentucky. 



Dr. Lawrence Smith, of Louisville, observed a magnificent meteor 

 traversing the heavens on the afternoon of the above day. He first 

 saw it at an altitude of about 60° above the horizon, and it disap- 

 peared from view behind some houses at an elevation of about 20°. 

 Its direction appears to have been from N.W. to S.E., and the angular 

 magnitude about one-sixth that of the disk of the moon. It was 

 seen over an area 120 miles in diameter. A number of observers 

 witnessed an explosion which took place when the meteor was about 

 10° above the horizon ; all the fragments disappeared instantly, 

 except the largest, which also became invisible before it reached the 

 horizon. One or two of the eye-witnesses think they noticed a 

 whizzing noise, and at the time of bursting heard the explosion. 

 No fragments of a meteorite have yet been met with ; but it is the 

 opinion of Dr. Smith that they fell about the range of the Cumber- 

 land Mountains in Kentucky, or in the north-east of Tennessee. 



(To be continued in our next Number.) 



