Selections. 



[NO. 2, NEW SERIES, 



to be rendered much more probable. Again, in looking at the 

 ■wood which immediately surrounded that portion of the mass which 

 remained, as it is now, firmly inserted in the tree, a blackened 

 substance was observed to be interpolated between the supposed 

 meteorite and the surrounding sound wood. On the outside of 

 this substance (which had somewhat a charred aspect) we observ- 

 ed a tiue bark, which follows the sinuosities of the wood wherever 

 the latter appears to have been influenced by the intrusion of the 

 foreign mineral matter. 



" Seeing thus enough to satisfy our conjecture, if sanctioned by 

 other evidence, I desired Mr. Poole to bring all the fragments of 

 the wood he had not destroyed which surrounded this body. On 

 placing the ends of some of these (also now exhibited) on the parts 

 from which they had been sawed off, they indicated that the space 

 between the mineral substance and the surrounding sound wood 

 widened upwards ; the decayed wood passing into brown earthy 

 matter with an opening or cavity into which rootlets extended. On 

 interrogating Mr. Poole, who cut down the tree and superintended 

 the breaking up of its timber, I learnt from him all requisite parti- 

 culars respecting its dimensions, the position of the ferruginous 

 mass, the quantity of wood above and below it, a description of the 

 place where the stool of the tree was still to be seen, and of the 

 parties who, living on the spot, were acquainted with every circum- 

 stance which could throw light on the case. 



" At this period of the inquiry, the Museum in Jermyn Street 

 was visited by Dr. Shepard, Professor in the University College, 

 Amherst, United States, whose researches on meteorites are widely 

 known, and who has furnished an able classification of them by 

 which they are divided into the two great classes of stony and me- 

 tallic. Having carefully examined the specimen, Dr. Shepard 

 expressed his decided belief that it was a true meteorite, and the 

 next day wrote to me the following account of it ; at the same time 

 referring me most obligingly to a series of interesting publications 

 on the subject as printed in America and Europe* : — 



* Dr. Shepard' s numerous memoirs on meteorites are all to be found in the vo- 

 lumes of the American Journal of Science and Art, and in the same work the read- 

 er will find not only the general classification of these bodies by this author, who 



