44-8 Prof. Maskelyne and Dr. Lang's Mineralogical Notes, 



mass. It was coated with crust on all its sides, but its ends 

 were not incrusted. The crust was dark brown, in parts black, 

 in some places with a foliated appearance. It was rather lustrous, 

 but not approaching in brilliancy to the enamelled coating of the 

 eukritic varieties of aerolites. Its thickness was equal over the 

 whole surface, and was considerable. Here and there darker and 

 more lustrous spots were seen, and on the convex and concave 

 sides there were shallow pittings. 



Under the microscope, in texture and material the Mhow 

 aerolite resembles very closely the aerolite of Bachmut, and 

 approaches it in specific gravity — that of Bachmut being 3*596, 

 while that of Mhow is 3*521. 



The structure of this meteorite is that of a tolerably compact 

 bluish-grey mass containing spherules disseminated sparsely 

 through it, very variable in size, and but little more compact 

 than the magma that contains them. The larger iron particles 

 are generally surrounded by stains of ferric oxide. The mottled 

 bluish-grey colour seems due to the admixture of a white or pale 

 brownish-yellow with an iron-grey mineral. 



The iron in it is rather abundant, partly as largish irregular 

 granules, partly as small particles, and also as an infinitesimally 

 minute dust disseminated especially through the iron-grey 

 mineral. 



Meteoric pyrites is present in the proportion of perhaps one- 

 fourth or one-fifth of the bulk of the iron. 



A black mineral (chromite ?) is also present in some quantity 

 in parts of the aerolite, as also several others. 



A microscopic inspection of the materials forming the Mhow 

 stone exhibits in it a good deal of a granular mineral, forming a 

 magma in which the spherules and many distinct crystals are set. 

 This magma is a congeries of (probably for the most part olivi- 

 nous) granules aggregated into a mass which is not at all com- 

 pact, and is similar to the ground-mass of Bachmut and the 

 aerolites analogous to it, but of rather larger grain than is the 

 case in Bachmut. In the spherules, which are by no means a 

 marked feature of this aerolite, we find the grey mineral which 

 I have before described as occurring in prisms and sometimes 

 with a fanned or radiated structure. There are also large sphe- 

 rules consisting of a mottled mineral, and containing iron in small 

 flakes dispersed as if spurted through it. 



Besides these there is a substance in very clear, little, colourless 

 crystals possessing a diagonal cleavage, and apparently belonging 

 to the prismatic system. These form groups that, with some of the 

 granular mineral intervening, build up spherules ; but they are 

 sometimes isolated and outside the spherules. In the latter 

 state some transparent crystals are also to be seen with a pale 



