6 GEOLOGICAL MEMOIRS. 



— 1, the black metallic mass of which the analysis is giren above ; 

 2, a light-grey metallic mass resembling ordinary iron ; and, 3, a 

 dark-green lithoid mass of silicates in which the metallic substance 

 is disseminated in globules and grains. The second type consists of 

 a pulverizable portion and numerous malleable lamellae, containing 

 respectively 74*2 and 82*4 per cent, of iron ; but as the former is 

 in much less quantity than the latter, the total amount of iron must 

 approximate to the latter number. The metallic globules of the 

 third type, when polished and treated with acid, show figures in- 

 dicating the presence of silicates very finely disseminated through 

 the mass ; in one of them the silica representing these silicates 

 reached 11-9 per cent, of the total weight. Both these types were 

 investigated in the same way as the first for the determination of 

 the free and combined iron and carbon, the silicium, and water. 

 The following are the results given : — 



First type. Second type. Third type. 



Iron, metallic 40-94 1 ^i nn 80-8 ] qq.^ 61-99 ,] ^^ . 



Iron, combined 30-15j'^""^ •■• l-6/°*' ••• 8-11 ]'" ^ 



Carbon, combined 3-001 ^,p, 2.6"] q.q 3-6 



Carbon, free 1-64/ *'^* ••• 0-3 j ^'^ ••■ M j ^''^ 



Silicimn 0-075 0-291 not determined. 



Water 2-86 0-7 



The author gives a similar comparative table of the proportions of 

 soluble salts contained in the three types, as follows : — 



First type. Second type. Third type. 



Sulphate of lime 1-288 ... 0-053 ... 0047 



Chloride of calcium 0039 ... 0-233 ... 0-146 



Chloride of iron 0-027 ... 0-089 ... 0114 



1-354 0-375 0-307 



Copper was detected by spectroscopic analysis in the solutions of 

 2 and 3 in hydrochloric acid. 



With regard to the nature of these masses, M. Daubree says 

 that the presence of nickeliferous iron and of schreibersite seems to 

 justify the name of meteorites that has been applied to them. In 

 the third type the distinctness of the crystals of the silicates con- 

 trasts with the confused and imperfect state of crystallization usual 

 in meteorites. Free oxide of iron is rare in meteorites ; in the 

 masses from Ovifak much of the iron is combined with oxygen ; and 

 the presence of an abundance of carbon in them, free or combined 

 with iron, is another equally remarkable fact. By the last two 

 characters the masses from Ovifak approach the carbonaceous 

 meteorites, from which, however, they differ in other characters, 

 and especially in their aspect, and must be regarded as forming a 

 new type in the series of meteoritic rocks. But while diff'ering 

 more or less from known meteorites, they are still more clearly dis- 

 tinguished from terrestrial rocks, even dolerites and basalts, as in 

 these native iron combined with nickel and cobalt, or phosphides 

 and sulphides of iron have never been detected. 



Suggesting but not adopting the notion that below the ordinary 

 eruptive masses there may be others becoming more and more rich 



