FOREIGN CORRESPONDENCE. 



285 



Notices of some Meteorites , hy Dr. Homes, Professor Wdhler, and 

 Director W. Haidinger. Read before the Lnperial Academy of 

 Sciences, Viemia, July, 1858, and January, 1859. Communicated 

 hy Count Marschall, of Vienna. 



1. — On the Meteorite of Ohaha (Transylvania). By Dr. Hornes. 



This meteorite fell in the night, between October 10th and 11th, 

 1857, at Ohaba, east of Carlsberg, in Transylvania, and was subse- 

 quently acquired for the Imperial Mineralogical Museum of Vienna. 

 Soon after midnight of October 10th, the curate of Ohaba was 

 frightened out of his sleep by a thunder-like noise, attended by a 

 fiery mass moving through the serene atmosphere, in a descending- 

 direction, and finally falling on the ground with a stunning detona- 

 tion. Next morning, the meteorite was found in an orchard, where 

 it had penetrated the tough, moss-covered ground. It is completely 

 covered with the black crust peculiar to meteorites ; its shape is that 

 of an irregular trilateral pyramid, fourteen and a half inches high ; ' 

 two of the irregularly curved surfaces are smooth, the third and the 

 basal one exhibit the characteristic round impressions. 



A fresh fracture at the base exhibits the interior, of a light green 

 colour, slightly tinged with dark bluish grey, with indistinct spherical 

 concretions, a great plenty of coarse and fine particles of metallic iron, 

 very minute particles of magnetic sulphuret of iron, and a very 

 scarce admixture of olivine. The crust is thin and opaque. 



This meteorite is very similar to that of Chateau-Renard (June 

 12th, 1841 j weight, between 70 and 80 lbs.); and on account of 

 the indistinct form of its spherical concretions, it must take its 

 place amongst Partsch's " Normal Meteorites." It weighs 29 lbs. ; 

 its specific gravity is 3.11. An analysis, made by Dr. Buckeisen, in 

 Professor Wohler's laboratory, proved it to be a compound of olivine, 

 augite, and a felspar-like mineral, with interspersed particles of 

 metallic and sulphuretted iron. 



2. — On the Meteorite of Kaba {Hungary). By Dr. Hornes. 



This meteoric stone fell April 15th, 1857, near Kaba, south-west 

 of Debreczin, in Central Hungary. About 10 p.m. an inhabitant of 

 Kaba, sleeping in the open air, was awakened by a noise, different 

 from that of thunder, as he described it, and perceived in the serene 

 sky a luminous globe, of dazzling brightness, following a parabolic 

 course during four seconds. This phenomenon was observed by 

 several inhabitants of the same place. As one of them was riding 



