MASKELYNE. — MINERALOGICAL SPECIMENS. 81 



basalt, entangled in which other specimens of native iron similar 

 in character and associated with a kind of pyrites (Troilite, Fe. S.), 

 only met with in meteorites, were found. 



Such an ingredient could only have found its way into the 

 basaltic dyke in one of two ways : it might have fallen into the 

 basalt in the very remote epoch when that rock was yet in a 

 plastic condition, or thei'e is the possibility that it might have 

 been terrestrial iron borne upwards with the melted rock mass 

 from the interior of the globe. 



It is, therefore, a matter of much interest that this place should 

 be again thoroughly explored, and the point in question settled. 

 The best means for this end will be to ascertain by careful inspec- 

 tion of the site how far the basaltic ridge from which Nauckhoff in 

 the Swedish expedition separated the specimens of iron and 

 troilite extends, and whether iron can be found in it in other 

 places than that immediately investigated. 



Experiments with a dip-magnet in the neighbourhood may lead 

 to the discovery of such masses. 



Under any circumstances it is important that portions of the 

 basaltic rock itself and of the so-called basalt wacke (or decom- 

 posed basalt) on either side of it, should be blasted from the mass 

 and brought home. 



And it will be of much interest in connexion with the subject 

 of meteorites, that any specimens of iron in use by the Esquimaux, 

 indicating rude hammering or workmanship, should be secured 

 and all possible information obtained as to the sources whence the 

 metal is obtained. There is good reason for believing that meteoric 

 iron has been habitually used by these people. 



Thus, Sir John Ross records at p. 104 of his narrative that 

 the natives in the neighbourhood of Cape Melville and Prince 

 Regent's Bay obtained their iron for their implements from masses 

 of iron that occurred in the Sowallick or Iron Mountains that 

 rise at the back of that bay. And he mentions that they reported 

 " that one of the iron masses, harder than the rest, was a part of 

 *' the mountain ; that the others were in large pieces above ground 

 " and not of so hard a nature ; that they cut it off with a hard 

 " stone and then beat it flat into pieces of the size of a sixpence, 

 ** but of an oval shape." 



The locality was stated to be some 25 miles distant from the 

 place in Prince Regent's Bay w^here the interview with the natives 

 was held. 



The masses of iron from Ofivak have a great tendency to undergo 

 a sort of spontaneous corrosion, due to the presence of soluble 

 chlorides enclosed within them. 



The only available way of arresting or retarding this action 

 seems to be to keep the meteoric masses either in completely dry 

 air, or in a liquid that is closed as much as possible from the air. 

 Probably putting them in a closed cask filled with fresh water 

 would be the best means of effecting it. 



There is another point of no small interest to which the atten- 

 tion of the observer in snowy latitudes should be drawn, in 



