1878.] Meteorite from Gorahhpur. 175 



The two meteoric stones now exhibited fell near Dandapur (Lat. 26^, 

 56' N., Long. 83^ 58' E.), a village 5 miles W. N. W. o£ the town of 

 Pudrownan, in the Gorakhpur district, on the evening of the 5th of Septem- 

 ber last, and were forwarded to the Indian Museum by Mr. Hugh Fraser, 

 Assistant Magistrate of Grorakhpur, with all the information he could pro- 

 cure respecting the occurrence, which is as follows : " About 5 p. m. some 

 people in the villages of Barchua and Dandapur saw what they describe as a 

 wedge-shaped cloud coming up from the north-east. It advanced from that 

 direction, and seemed to descend, and then there was a noise like thunder. 

 They say their eyes closed, but it is not clear from the wording whether on 

 account of a flash, or on account of fear. The fragments fell — one through 

 the house of Salamdari ; one in a field on the boundaries of the neighbour- 

 ing village Sirsa, about 300 paces distant from the first, and another, not 

 yet recovered, in a tank In the two first places a hole was made in the 

 ground about a span in depth and a cubit in diameter ; there was some delay 

 in digging out, and when taken out, the stones were not warm." 



According to the above account, the fragments fell at a distance of some 

 300 paces from each other. It will be observed, notwithstanding, that on 

 the fractured faces they fit each other exactly, the two forming the halves of 

 a single stone, which prior to its fracture was covered entirely by the usual 

 brownish-black crust. The larger fragment weighs about 6 lbs. 9 oz., and 

 the smaller about 5 lbs. 14 oz., the two together forming an irregular, 

 somewhat wedge-shaped mass, measuring about 7 inches by 7, with an 

 average thickness of about 3 inches, but thinning of£ considerably towards 

 one side. The specific gravity of the larger piece was found to be 3*29. 



On a fresh fracture, the meteorite is seen to consist of a minutely 

 crystalline white mass, composed of translucent grains of one or more sili- 

 cates, through which specks with metallic lustre are plentifully distribu- 

 ted. Most of these are small, so that they are distinctly visible only under 

 the lens, but others are of larger dimensions, one or two being about an 

 eighth of an inch in diameter. The greater number of these are troilite or 

 pyrrhotite, but a considerable proportion are of nickeliferous iron. The oc- 

 currence of phosphorus, also, seems to indicate the presence of schreibersite. 

 On the faces of oiiginal fracture the meteorite presents an ochry mottling 

 due to the oxidation of the iron ; but there is no sign of the crust that covers 

 all the rest of the surface. In this connection it will be interesting to 

 notice whether the third piece, if it can be recovered, should appear to have 

 been originally united to these. 



