Proceedings, &c. xxiii 



and have to add that I fully coincide with them. It seems to be 

 highly desirable to prevent the division of this splendid specimen, 

 and I earnestly hope that your suggestions may be completely 

 carried out, as being conducive to the advancement of science, the 

 enrichment of the great British Museum, as well as highly honour- 

 able on the part of the colonists of Victoria. 



" Yours sincerely, 



(Signed) " Roderick I. Murchison. 



« To His Excellency Sir Henry Barkly, K.C.B., &c." 



" Mineral Department, British Museum, 



" My Dear Professor, " 21st May, 1862. 



" As regards the Melbourne Aerolite, I think the gen- 

 tlemen who have recommended its being cut in two, are hardly aware 

 of the magnitude of the task they would impose on themselves. 

 The mere labour and expense, not to say the time (which would be 

 many months) required to perform the section properly, would be 

 out of all proportion to the result, while the cutting off of a small 

 piece, serves to exhibit the characteristic of the crystaline structure. 

 On the other hand, the iron mass which is coming from Melbourne, 

 and which it is proposed that we should buy, and send back in ex- 

 change for the large one, weighs I believe, some 2,500 lbs., the 

 latter weighs somewhat under four tons. We may estimate, there- 

 fore, the iron mass we are to send back at about one-third the 

 weight of the big aerolite. Now, I consider an entire aerolite, from 

 its exhibition of form, and the character of the surface at various 

 parts, (and in an iron aerolite from its magnetic characteristic), far 

 more valuable than a fragment, and I would far rather have the 

 small aerolite, than be a party to the division of the large one. I 

 think the proposition as originally made, a very good one, and as 

 honourable to the patriotism as it is to the liberality and sagacity of 

 the gentleman who proposed it. The fact is, the Colonial Museum 

 has much to gain, by the sort of relations with us which the gen- 

 tlemen at Melbourne are proposing in this case. It is, in fact, 

 assigning to the Imperial Museum, and to the great Museum of the 

 Colony, their proper relative functions of mutual interest and 

 support. You know what is now going on between my department, 

 and the Museums of Calcutta and Madras. They gain more than 

 they lose, and so c^o we. If they have sent us their finest aerolites, 

 one of which is the finest in the world, they have in place of them 

 casts of our great fossils and duplicates from our aerolites, which 

 would have been got only with difficulty, and expense, in any other 

 way. I think, when the time comes, which can only be when the 



