VICTORIA METEORIC IRON: 



(Seen to fall in South Africa in 1862) 

 WITH SOME NOTES ON CHLADNTTE OE ENSTATITE. 



The Victoria Meteoric Iron, although found about ten years 

 since, has never been described; and yet it is one of the most 

 interesting of this class of meteorites. I have succeeded in 

 collecting the following facts in connection with it. It was 

 seen to fall in the year 1862 by a Dutch farmer in Victoria 

 West, Cape Colony, South Africa, and was given by him to Mr. 

 Auret, the civil commissioner of that district, who presented 

 it to the South African Museum at Capetown. 



Although it is an iron that has a tendency to decompose 

 rapidly, it has not undergone the decomposition that would 

 have inevitably taken place had it long remained exposed ta 

 atmospheric influences. This fact, coupled with another that 

 the farmer could have no object to deceive any one with refer- 

 ence to a body which certainly bears evidence that it fell at 

 some time from the heavens, and as those who know the farmer 

 have every confidence in his statement, we are led to conclude 

 that it is to be placed along side of the Agram, Brannau, and 



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