1869.] Analysis of the Khettree Meteorite. 253 



Khettree in Shekawattie, Rajputana, Lat. 28° 9' 45" N., Long. 75° 

 51' 20" E., and about 90 miles S. W. of Groorgaon near Delhi." 



11 The natives, not knowing what to make of these stones, and being 

 just as superstitious, if not more, than all natives of India, put it 

 down to the vengeance of some offended deity : they, therefore, set about 

 gathering all the stones that they could find ; these, they afterwards 

 pounded down to powder and scattered this to the breeze, &c, so as 

 not to let the vengeance of the offended god redound on them. No 

 sooner did I hear of the fall of the stones, and ascertained the exact 

 locality, I sent all the sowars attached to my camp, to scour the 

 country round about the place, with the intention of procuring as 

 many of the stones as possible. I was very nearly too late, as be- 

 tween them all, they only managed to get the piece I sent down to 

 you, and that by a promise of a large reward. I cannot fully describe 

 to you the fear of the inhabitants of the villages adjacent to where 

 the stones fell, and their amusing and queer descriptions as to their 

 ideas of the cause, and nature of the Aerolites." 



" I am sorry I had not an opportunity of viewing one of the stones 

 before they had been broken by the foolish villagers, as I should 

 have then been able to give you the real size, &c, of them ; but from 

 descriptions given me by the more respectable class of natives, I 

 should say the stones were about the size of a 24-pounder shot, quite 

 round, with a blackish appearance on the outside, and impregnated 

 with a sulphurous smell. They fell with such velocity that they 

 sank two or three feet into the ground, a sandy soil. The men who 

 gave me these descriptions, I summoned and questioned them my- 

 self ; of course as is natural with natives, I received all sorts of 

 communications regarding the fall of the stones, but they are not only 

 as foolish as they are untruthful, so it is no use my giving them you. 

 The descriptions I have now given you, may be relied on, as they are 

 collected by myself, from personal interviews with the more informed 

 and respectable class of natives, such as Mahajans, Pataels and the 

 Raj officials ; and I only kept those descriptions that tallied with 

 others I had previously received from others." 



The stone is partly of a light bluish grey colour, partly of a much 

 darker grey, in some places the two portions lying in contact like two 

 strata, in others nodules of the one imbedded in the other. The broken 



