1872.) 955 | [Packard. 
arated by succinate of ammonia in the presence of chloride of am- 
monium when burned, redissolved in nitric acid and reprecipitated 
by ammonia, gave on calculation, from the peroxide, metallic 
iron 80.74 per cent. The nickel, precipitated by potash, washed 
dried, and ignited and weighed, gave on calculation, metallic nickel 
15.73 per ct. Phosphorus and other undetermined matters then 
weighed 3.52 perct. ‘This analysis shows that this iron is certainly 
of meteoric origin. 
Dr. Jackson then alluded to the various theories of me- 
teorites, and spoke of their great abundance in the western 
United States and in Mexico. Dr. Jackson also spoke of the 
remarkable absence of fossil meteorites, none having been 
found even in Tertiary strata, until a recent discovery said 
to have been made in Greenland, in basaltic rocks. 
Capt. N. E. Atwood spoke of the distribution of the com- 
mon squid (Ommastrephes sagittatus). Sixty years ago the 
squid was extremely abundant at Provincetown, Cape Cod, 
but began about 1847 to become less plenty until in 1867 he 
had been unable to find a single specimen. Since that date, 
however, a few had been found, and this season they sud- 
denly appeared in countless numbers. A century ago the 
squid was quite abundant on the Grand Banks of New 
Foundland, from which they had disappeared by his boy- 
hood, but lately*had become somewhat abundant, and this 
year extremely so, as at Provincetown. 
In the course of remarks called forth by Capt. Atwood’s communica- 
tion Dr. Packard stated that a colossal squid had been taken by the 
crew of a Gloucester fishing vessel while upon the Grand Bank. 
Its longer arms were ten feet inlength. He had taken a photograph 
of the beak to Prof. Steenstrup, Director of the Museum at Copen- 
hagen, who identified it as belonging, without much doubt, to Archi- 
teuthis duz Stp. The specimen in the Copenhagen Museum had 
come from near the Bahamas. 
The jaw of a squid, probably twenty to thirty feet in length, pre- 
sented by Capt. Atwood to the Essex Institute, had also been identi- 
fied as probably Architeuthis monachus of ‘Steenstrup. This was 
