Fireball observed near Auchterarder, Perthshire. 67 



strongly of its relation solely to the earth, and especially 

 to the coal formation ; indeed, it appears to be simply a 

 weathered portion of one of those veins or thin seams of 

 iron pyrites which are so common in our beds of coal, having 

 been probably brought, with the manures, to the field where 

 it was afterwards found. I showed the specimen to various 

 friends, and they agreed with me there could be no doubt of 

 its being simply a mass of white iron pyrites. The existence 

 of the sulphureous smell in its gradual decomposition after 

 continued exposure to the weather, was of course to be ex- 

 pected from its composition as a sulphuret of iron ; and the 

 same decomposition would also account for the blackened 

 appearance of the vegetation round the crumbling mass of 

 coal and pyrites. 



The broken portions of the stone I put into the hands 

 of our member and well-known lecturer on chemistry, Dr 

 Murray Thomson, telling him nothing of its history, and re- 

 questing to know if it contained any metal besides iron ; and 

 was favoured with a reply, stating, he had made a length- 

 ened examination of the substance sent him, and could 

 detect no traces of any metal except iron. I then informed 

 Dr Murray Thomson of the chemical analysis which had 

 been made, and the reported discovery of nickel in the mass, 

 and have since been favoured with the following notes : — 



" Having been asked by Dr Smith to examine some powder 

 which appeared like sulphuret of iron, with a request that I 

 should look for other metals than iron, I did so, but was 

 unsuccessful in finding anything else than iron and sulphur, 

 and a little siliceous matter. Lead, copper, arsenic, man- 

 ganese, alumina, cobalt, nickel, as well as tin and magnesia, 

 were specially looked for. I could not, however, detect any. 



" Dr S., since I reported this result to him, has showed me 

 an analysis of the mass, in which it is stated that a large 

 amount of nickel was found ; as this result surprised me 

 much, I have again carefully tested the substance for nickel, 

 but was again quite unsuccessful in finding any." 



In the newspaper paragraph quoted at the commencement 

 of these remarks, it was stated that another meteor had 

 fallen the same evening near Stirling. 



