VICTORIAN METEORITES, WITH NOTES ON OBSIDIANITES. 
distance between the two most remote meteorites is about 13 miles, 
so that if they originated from a single explosion taking place mid- 
way between these points the fragments must have been scattered 
over a radius of not less than 61 miles. The fracture-like faces on 
the Cranbourne No. 2 have been described, but, such surfaces 
are not necessarily evidence that this meteorite formed part 
of a body from which the others also originated. They may have 
been produced by that meteorite casting off parts from 
itself. One rather interesting fact which was brought out promi- 
nently by mapping the positions of the meteorites, which discounts 
the idea of a single explosion, is that four of them— the Cran- 
bourne No. 3 is excluded, for its relative position is not known 
— were discovered in places occurring almost in a straight line 
bearing about S. 30° W. from the Beaconsfield, which is the 
most northerly one (see plate V.). This may be nothing more than a 
mere coincidence, although it is certainly suggestive of the direction of 
flight either of one large body casting ofE fragments in its passage 
through the air, or of a cluster of independent meteorites of which 
the individuals have reached the earth at intervals. It appears 
probable that in either of these cases, other, but perhaps smaller 
pieces, are yet to be discovered. The Cranbourne No. 3 is likely 
enough only one of such specimens, and it might have been derived 
from the Cranbourne No. 1. 
Then again it is surely more than a coincidence that out of the 
six meteorites, the characters of which are definitely known, the tour 
allied in structure and composition should have occurred in the 
same locality within a few miles, while the two found in parts remote 
from these not only differ from them, but ore quite distinct from one 
another. Further, it is practically certain that of the undescribed 
meteorites the Cranbourne No. 3 is identical with the other 
Cranbourne meteorites and that the Kulnine, the most distant 
from them, does not belong to the same class. On the whole of 
the evidence it appears that there is very good reason for believing 
that the meteorites found in the neighbourhood of Cranbourne 
have originated from a common source, but whether this was a 
single large cosmic body or an associated cluster of independent 
bodies of identical nature cannot be decided. 
