4?44 PROF. NORBENSKIOLD, EXPEDITION TO GREENLAND. 



I. Contained scarcely any traces of silicic acid, alumina, or lime. 

 The iron was, therefore, entirely free from silicates, although large 

 lumps of basalt were firmly rusted on to the surface of the meteo- 

 rite, and one or two fragments of basalt surrounded with iron 

 could be observed within the iron near the surface. Even before 

 heating to redness, I. emitted a good deal of water and gas, as 

 much apparently as amounted to about 100 times the volume of 

 the iron — that is to say, considerably more than the iron examined 

 in Analyses I. and II. ; this explains the" large loss in I. The 

 specific gravity of I. was ascertained, from two (porous) fragments 

 of some grammes weight, to be 6 "36 and 5*86. The smaller 

 specific gravity here arises evidently from the large quantity of 

 carbonaceous matter that is contained in this iron. Nordstrom 

 obtained the specific weight of II. from two experiments on small 

 pieces = 7'05 and 7'06. Lindstrom found the specific gravity of 



III. at 17° C. to be equal to 6*24. The iron employed in 

 Analysis II. was less crystalline and more compact than that used 

 in Analysis I. It was hard to break, and small grains could be 

 hammered flat without disintegration. In Analyses II. and III. 

 the materials examined were in external appearance precisely 

 alike, and I therefore consider it as probable that the material of 

 II. also was from the basalt ridge, although it had afterwards 

 crumbled apart. 



IV. Analysis of the silicate that remained undissolved in Ana- 

 lysis II., by Dr. Th. Nordstrom. V. Analysis of a piece of 

 basalt firmly rusted on to the surface of the largest meteorite, 

 by Dr. Th. Nordstrom : — 



Silicic Acid 



Alumina 



Sesquioxide of Iron 



Protoxide of Iron 



Magnesia 



Lime - - - 



IV. 



V. 



61-79 



44-01 



23-31 



14-27 



1-45 



3-89 



— 



14-75 



2-83 



8-11 



8-33 



10-91 



2-29 



r 0-97 

 1 2-61 



100-00 



99-52 



VI. and VII. Analyses of the carbonaceous matter in the iron 

 of II. by Nordstrom. 33 ' 0479 gr. gave, after first treating with 



strength and temperature, not only is this humus-like matter generated, but 

 hydro-carbons also, and (according to a statement made to me by Prof. Eggertz) 

 even fluid hydro-carbons, the atomic composition of which is very complicated. 

 We have here, then, a method for attempting the synthesis of organic sub- 

 stances from their inorganic components unemployed hitherto, as far as I am 

 aware, in synthetic organic chemistry. Iron containing carhon was pointed 

 out by Berzclius in 1818 (Aph. i. Fysik, Kemi, etc., vol. v. p. 534) as an 

 inorganic material which might serve as a means for the synthetical formation 

 of organic compounds. 



