396 Proceedings of the Royal Physical Society. 



Bressa Sound, off Lerwick, Zetland, from the British ports. 

 It leaves for the north about the beginning of March, and 

 shortly afterwards commences to encounter the ice. Upon 

 the whole, the trade is a most dangerous and precarious 

 one, and in many years does not repay the money expended 

 on it. 



II. Notice of a Mass of Meteoric Iron, found in the Village of New - 

 stead, Roxburghshire ; with some General Remarks on Meteorites. 

 By John Alexander Smith, M.D. (Plate XXI.) 



Description of Mass of Iron. — The external surface of this 

 mass of iron (exhibited to the meeting) is rough and irregu- 

 lar; and it affects the magnetic needle very strongly. 



Its shape and general appearance is rather elegant, con- 

 sisting principally of a large rounded and lobulated mass, 

 irregular in outline, which tapers rapidly at one end to a four- 

 sided pyramidal extremity, and terminates in an obliquely 

 truncated point. (See Plate XXI.) 



For the purpose of a detailed description of its form, it may 

 be divided into two portions : the larger extremity, which is 

 rounded in its character ; and the smaller, flattened, and 

 smoother on its surface, which tapers to a blunt point. The 

 first, or larger portion, is formed of a clustering mass of 

 rounded lobes irregularly grouped together, and terminates 

 behind in a broad blunt edge. The lobes vary in size, and 

 m their greater or less projection from its surface. A deep 

 furrow runs obliquely round the whole mass, and in front of 

 it (towards the pointed extremity) there rises a large, round, 

 and prominent lobe, with a smaller lobe on one side, and two, 

 more irregularly shaped, projecting masses on the other ; by 

 measuring round these masses you get its greatest circum- 

 ference. The second, or smaller portion of the meteorite, lies 

 immediately in front of the prominent lobes just described, 

 its rounded outlines rapidly changing into four irregular 

 smoother surfaces or planes, which 9 meeting one another with 

 two acute and two obtuse angles, together form a somewhat 

 pyramidal four-sided figure, which tapers rapidly towards 

 this end of the mass, and terminates in an irregular quadri- 

 lateral or lozenge-shaped extremity. The sides of this lozenge 



