ON METEORITES. 



The -Collection of Meteorites will he found on the First Floor, in 

 the Pavilion at the end of the Mineral Gallery : the smaller speci- 

 mens are arranged in the two central table-cases, and the larger ones 

 on separate stands. 



The position of any Meteorite of which a name is known cm he 

 found by help of the Alphabetical Index, page 146, and of the Cata- 

 logue, page 133. % 



The Numbers refer to those in the first column of the Catalogue? 

 pages 133-144, and also to corresponding Numbers placed with the 

 specimens. The Capitals refer to corresponding Letters on the 

 Cases, and indicate the particular pane of glass behind which a 

 portion of the original Meteorite will be found. 



Till the beginning of the present century, the fall of stones 

 from the sky seemed an event so strange that neither scientific 

 men nor the mass of the people could be brought to credit 

 its possibility. Such falls are, indeed, recorded by the early 

 writers of many nations, Hebrew, Chinese, Greek and Roman; 

 but the witnesses of these events have been in general laughed 

 at for their delusions : perhaps this is less to be wondered at 

 when we remember that the witnesses of a fall have been, 

 usually few in number, unaccustomed to exact observation, 

 and have had a common tendency towards exaggeration and 

 superstition. 



The oldest undoubted sky-stone at present known is that 

 which, though after the Revolution removed for a time to 

 the Library at Colmar, is once more suspended by a chain from 

 the vault of the choir of the parish church of Ensisheim in 

 Elsass (137 V). The following is a translated extract from 

 a document kept in the church : — 



" On the 7th of November, 1492, a singular miracle hap- 

 pened: for between 11 and 12 in the forenoon, with 

 a loud crash of thunder and a lasting noise heard 

 afar off, there fell in the town of Ensisheim a stone 

 weighing 2 60 pounds. It was seen by a child t©< 



