Prof. Maskelyne and Dr. Lang's Miner ah gical Notes. 137 



The fall at Manegaum is chiefly interesting for the incidental 

 testimony it bears in confirmation of some of the phenomena 

 just alluded to. 



The original softness (" mouldiness ") of the stone, and its 

 supposed ultimate hardening, may perhaps have been due to a 

 sort of process of setting, arising from the action of damp on the 

 flocculent whitish mineral which seems to hold the granules of 

 the aerolite together in the very loose and incompact state of 

 solidity in which it exists. The native who described the cool- 

 ness of the stone, records also its being shivered to fragments in 

 consequence of its loose state of aggregation. He spoke of it as 

 at first black (previous to its being taken up ? and so with only 

 its crust visible ?), afterwards blue, and finally becoming white. 



I think, however, that both this statement and that of the 

 change in solidity may perhaps be explained by the natives 

 having spoken of different parts of the stone seen by them at 

 different times. Thus there are parts of it of a bluish grey from the 

 intermixture of a black mineral in vein-like bands ; while again 

 the fragments that were preserved were probably those that were 

 the most solid and compact — the central portions, in fact, of the 

 otherwise shattered pieces — so that the crumbling of the mass in 

 the hands that first raised it may have given rise to an idea that 

 it was originally all like " mould." Of these fragments only 

 2-J- ozs. have been preserved, and they were in the collection of 

 the Asiatic Society of Bengal at Calcutta. The specimen in the 

 British Museum was one of the many liberal contributions for 

 which the national collection of meteorites is indebted to that 

 body. 



The Manegaum stone is a singularly interesting one. It 

 belongs to the " Howardite" class of Rose, embracing Massing, 

 Bialystok, Luotolaks, and Nobleborough. I can only speak 

 from my own experience of the first two of these; and of those 

 it is with Massing rather than Bialystok that Manegaum pre- 

 sents a really close similarity. It exhibits a large number of 

 crystalline, generally very irregularly-shaped fragments, rarely 

 indeed with one or two crystal planes, but generally with only 

 very uneven surfaces of fracture, or of imperfect cleavage. These 

 crystalline grains are of a delicate primrose-yellow, passing in 

 some instances into a darker shade and greener hue. It is pro- 

 bable that they are olivine, but their long resistance to the action 

 of hydrochloric acid makes it very desirable that their analysis 

 should be effected. I have found minute fragments with one 

 very decided cleavage, and with a second perpendicular to it pre- 

 senting a very uneven surface ; and this, coupled with the evi- 

 dence afforded by the directions of the planes of polarization as 

 seen in the microscope in favour of its being prismatic in crystal- 



