102 On Meteorites. 
once been soft as a dough in which the kneading-fingers had left 
their impressions. The air has had a consuming effect on the stone 
—much in the same way as a powerful jet of sand acts on a solid 
body. Mr. Daubrée has experimentally imitated this remarkable 
effect of the air. Not being able to move a solid against an. aéri- 
form body with sufficient speed—as is the case with the meteorites 
—he chose to proceed in the opposite way, making air strike solid 
bodies with great vehemence by exploding dynamite cartridges 
against an iron rail. The result of the experiment showed that the 
gases, suddenly developed by the dynamite exploding, produced 
hollows even in a body of such resisting-power as an iron rail, and 
the form of the impressions—in this as well as in his other 
experiments—corresponds exactly to those found in the meteorites. 
Having now considered the phenomena accompanying the fall of 
meteorites, we shall now direct our attention to their mineralogical 
nature. 
The meteorites may be classed in two primary groups: stone- 
meteorites—to which belongs the Tysnes meteorite—and iron- 
meteorites, which consist chiefly of this metal. The two principal 
minerals composing the stone-meteorites are eustatite and olivine (or 
chrysolite)—both of which are also found on our globe, though rather 
rare—besides which these meteorites also contain grains of native 
iron, as an occasional sprinkling, through the mass. Examined by 
the microscope, they exhibit a structure which proves that origin- 
ally and before entering the atmosphere they were formed out 0 
melted masses by congelation. Fouqué and Michel Lévy have 
produced, artificially, the structures mentioned by melting together 
suitable substances. It thus appears that these small heavenly 
bodies, in precisely the same manner as the crust of our own globe, 
consist of originally molten masses, having afterwards become sol- 
idified. Inthis connection, it may not be out of place to remind one > — 
of the fact that the interior of the earth consists of substances heavier 
than those most commonly found on the surface. The meteorite 18 
also heavier than common stone; and it has been conjectured (with 
several reasons to support this hypothesis) that the interior of the 
earth consists of a substance similar to that composing thè — 
meteorites. 
On further examining the meteorites, it is found that after having 
passed through the original congealing process they have undergon® 
several changes on their way through space. In many cases it 1$ 
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