80 MASKELYNE. — MINERALOGICAL SPECIMENS. 



Lawrence (Longman & Co., 1866). And included with the small 

 series of minerals above recommended, a few samples of the more 

 important igneous rocks should be taken for the purpose of 

 comparison. 



With regard to tools and instruments requisite for obtaining 

 mineral specimens and for recognising them when obtained, be- 

 sides the personal companionship of a small portable hammer of the 

 best steel and of not too hard a temper, at least one more massive 

 hammer, and two or three large chisels and wedges should form a 

 part of the equipment that accompanies an exploring party ; and 

 doubtless means of blasting masses of rock in special cases, by me- 

 thods involving comparatively little labour will not be wanting to 

 the Expedition. Tools of large size are requisite in order to obtain 

 good pieces even of small magnitude of tough igneous rocks. The 

 specimens of rock themselves need not be larger than four inches 

 by three, and one inch thick ; but, where many have to be carried, 

 in the case of ordinary-looking rocks a size of about 3 in. x 2 in. 

 must be deemed sufficient. 



But it is before all important that, where possible, the specimens 

 secured should not be merely the weathered outside of a protruding 

 rock, but a piece of the rock with fresh fracture from the interior 

 of such a mass. 



The instruments of observation requisite for determining the 

 direction and inclination of ridges and of the faces of rock- 

 masses belong rather to instructions in geology than to those for 

 collecting minerals, and will doubtless be provided for the Expe- 

 dition. For the actual scrutiny of the minerals themselves the 

 following apparatus should be provided for each collector. An 

 ordinary pocket lens (and one or two in reser^^e in case of loss), 

 with a moderately high and a low power ; a small strong stoppered 

 bottle for containing dilute hydrochloric acid ; a not too elaborate 

 set of blow-pipe apparatus, including a lamp for colza oil, or a 

 supply of large sized stearine candles ; two or three small line 

 three-cornered steel files ; a small collection of ten mineral speci- 

 mens representing the degrees of hardness ; a magnetized needle, 

 and a small hammer and two or three little steel chisels for trimming 

 specimens. 



B. — Meteorites. 



There is no spot in the world around which so much interest 

 has gathered in connexion with the subject of meteorites as that 

 to the N.W. of Disco Fjord in the island of Disco, from which 

 Prof. Nordenskioid first brought to Europe large masses of iron, 

 which he announced as having been embedded in Miocene times 

 in the basaltic rocks that there overHe to a vast thickness the 

 gneissoid formations of the island. This spot is Ofivak, and from 

 it an expedition in 1871, a year after Prof. Nordenskiold's return, 

 brought to Stockholm a mass of iron weighing nearly 20 tons, and 

 others only inferior to it in size. 



The great interest of the discovery lay, however, not even in 

 the acquisition of these masses of apparently meteoric iron, but in 

 the fact that they were found in close proximity to a ridge of 



