Dr. Walter Flight— On Meteorites. 449 



into brown. The specific gravity of the outer layer is 3-382. The 

 inner part of the stone has a distinctly clioudritic structure ; some of 

 the chondra are comparatively large, from one-sixteenth to one- 

 eighth of an inch across, and a few are a little larger. The specific 

 gravity of this portion of the stone is 3 '503. Mr. Eussell, who took 

 the density of the large block, makes it 3-387, The grey granules 

 were submitted to asuperfi.cial examination and showed the reactions 

 of bronzite. 



I have to thank Prof. Liversidge for sending me several micro- 

 scopic sections of this very important meteorite. 



The Siderolite of Rittersgriin.— Found 1833.' 



The examination by Dr. Clemens Winkler of the siderolite of 

 Eittersgriin, Saxony, shows it to accoi'd closely in composition with 

 the siderolite of Breitenbach in Bohemia, examined some years since 

 (1871) in the Laboratory of the Mineral Department of the British 

 Museum; and to strengthen the view expressed at the time that 

 these bodies, as well as the meteorite of Steinbach in Erzgebirge 

 were probably members of the same fall, possibly of the " Eisenre- 

 gen" reported on by Sartorius (died 1609) as having fallen "im 

 Meissnischen " at AVhitsuntide, 1164. 



The Eittersgriin meteorite was found in 1833 by a workman em- 

 ployed in clearing the forest, and offered for sale as old iron to a 

 smith, but without success ; but in 1861 it came to the notice of the 

 lamented Professor Breithaupt, and was secured for the mineral 

 collection of the Bergakademie, of Freiberg. Its mean diameter 

 is 0-43 metre, and its weight 86-5 kilogrammes. It has recently 

 been sawn through in Vienna, a troublesome and costly labour 

 extending over two months. An excellent chromo-lithogTaph of the 

 surface thus exposed was prepared by Professor Weisbach, in 1876, 

 and published with a few notes. ^ 



The meshwork of nickel-iron of the siderolite incloses the follow- 

 ing minerals : troilite, asmanite, bronzite, and chromite ; the metallic 

 portion constitutes about 51-06 per cent., and the non-metallic ingre- 

 dients about 48-94 per cent, of the stone. The nickel-iron contains : — 



Fe M Co Ca P S Si C Asmanite. 



89-990 9-740 0-230 0-035 0-150 0-011 0-066 Trace 0-056 = 100-278 

 which constituents may be arranged as follows : — 



Xickel-iron FegNi 98-995 



Iron-nickel phosphide (FeXi)4P 0-293 



Iron phosphide FejP 



Iron siKcide Fe2Si 

 Iron sulphide FeS 

 Iron carbide 



Copper 



Asmanite 



0-539 

 0-330 

 0-030 

 Trace 

 0-035 

 0-056 



100-278 



^ C. "Winkler, Nova Acta der K. Leop. Carol., Bent. Akad. der Naturforsclier, 

 xl. Nr. 8, 333. Halle, 1878. 



- Der Eisenmeteorit von Rittersgriin im Sachsischen Erzgehirge. By A. W. 1876. 

 Freiberg Kon. Bergakad. 



DECADE 11. — VOL. IX. NO. X. 29 



