1882.] 



Dr. W. Flight. On Meteorites. 



345 



Carbonic acid '12 



Carbonic oxide 31 '88 



Hydrogen 45 79 



Marsh-gas 4 '55 



Nitrogen . . . , 17 '66 



100 -oo 



Drawings of the meteoric iron in situ accompany the paper. 



II. — The Rowton Siderite or Meteoric Iron. 



The metallic mass next to be described is one of unusual interest in 

 more than one respect : in the first place, before it fell, only one iron 

 meteorite was known to have fallen in Great Britain, while eight stony 

 meteorites that have fallen in the British Islands are in the National 

 Collection ; and, secondly, of the more than 300 meteorites which are 

 contained in the collection in the Natural History Museum more than 

 100 are unquestionably iron meteorites, and of these the fall of seven 

 only has been witnessed. 



This iron fell at about twenty minutes to four on the afternoon of 

 the 20th April, 1876, in a turf-field adjoining the Wellington and 

 Market Drayton Railway, about a mile north of the Wrekin, on 

 land belonging to the Duke of Cleveland, at Rowton, Dear Welling- 

 ton, Shropshire. A strange rumbling noise was heard in the air, 

 followed instantaneously by a startling explosion resembling a dis- 

 charge of heavy artillery. Rain was falling heavily at the time. 

 About an hour later a man entering the field had his attention 

 attracted by a hole cut in the ground ; he probed it with a stick, 

 when he found a block of meteoric iron weighing 7} lbs. It had 

 penetrated to a depth of 18 inches ; the hole was nearly perpendicular, 

 but the stone appears to have fallen in a south-easterly direction. 

 When removed from the hole the mass was still quite warm. 



It is covered with a thin dull black crust of the magnetic oxide, 

 though in certain spots the metallic character of the block is revealed, 

 especially at the point where it struck the earth. It closely resembles 

 the iron of Nedagolla, in India. Some fragments were analysed, and 

 found to contain iron 91'25 and 91*046, nickel 8'582, cobalt 0'371, 

 and a trace of copper. 



A part of a nodule of troilite, which was found not to be in the 

 slightest degree magnetic, and was covered with a thin layer of 

 graphite, was submitted to analysis ; and there was found sulphur 

 36' 073 per cent., theory requiring 36' 36 per cent. 



Some fragments of iron were sawn into very thin plates, and the 

 gases contained in them pumped out. The gas collected was 6' 38 

 times the bulk of the iron used, and its composition proved to be — 



