360 



Dr. Walter Flight — On Meteorites. 



at all angles from 90° to 150°. Its density is 7 ; that of homogeneous 

 fragments being 7-405, and that of the troilite 4-77. Analysis 

 showed it to consist of : 



Iron 



Nickel ... 



Cobalt 



Insoluble matters 



Tin .. , 



Phosphorus 



92-416 



6-077 



0-927 



0-264 



a trace 



a trace 



99-684 



Meteoric Deposits on Arctic Snow, off the Taimur Coast, 1880.^ 



Immediately after the " Vega " lay-to, Baron Nordenslcjold went 

 down on the ice, in order to see whether here too some such 

 metalliferous dust, as he had before found north of Spitzbergen, was 

 not to be found on the surface of the ice. Nothing of the kind, 

 however, was to be seen. On the other hand, Lieutenant Nordquist 

 observed small yellow specks in the snow, which he collected and 

 handed over for investigation to Dr. Kjellman. Nordenskjold 

 supposed that the specks consisted of diatom ooze. After examining 

 them Dr. Kjellman, however, declared that they did not consist of any 

 organic substance, but of crystallized grains of sand. Nordenskjold 

 too examined them more closely, but unfortunately not until the 

 morning after we had left the field, and then found that the supposed 

 ooze consisted of pale yellow crystals (not fragments of crystals), 

 without mixture of foreign matter. The quantity of crystals, which 

 were obtained from about three litres of snow, skimmed from the 

 surface of the snow on an area of at most 10 square metres, amounted 

 to nearly 2 gram. The crystals were found only near the surface 

 of the snow, not in the deep layers. They were up to 1 mm. in 

 diameter, had the appearance shown in the accompanying woodcut, 

 and appeared to belong to the rhombic system, as they had one 

 perfect cleavage, and formed striated prisms terminated at either 



Form of the Crystals found on the Ice off the Taimur Coast. 

 Magnified thirty to forty times. 



end by truncated pyramids. Unfortunately actual measurements of 

 them could not be made, because after being kept for some time in 



^ A. E. Nordenskjold, The Voyage of the "Vega," vol. i. pp. 327-331, 

 MacmiUan, 1881. 



