VICTORIAN METEORITES, WITH NOTES ON OBSIDIANITES. 
metallic iron. The piece alluded to as projecting above the ground 
had been cut off before Neumayer’s visit, and he was informed that 
a horse-shoe had been manufactured from it. 
The first record of the larger meteorite dates from 1854, in which 
year “ a specimen of iron from Western Port and a horse-shoe made 
from it ” were exhibited in the Melbourne Exhibition by James A. 
Scott, 32 Little Collins-street W., farrier (38). This is evidently 
the horse-shoe mentioned by Neumayer. He, from what could be 
gathered as to the time the meteorite was first seen, or recognised 
as a mass of metallic iron by Europeans, placed it in the years 1853 
or 1854. No mention seems to have been made as to the probable 
date of discovery of the smaller meteorite. It was likely enough, 
however, shortly after the discovery of the larger one. 
The first authentic report on the occurrences was made by E. G. 
Eitzgibbon (19), then town clerk of Melbourne, who first heard of 
it at the beginning of 1860, when acting as a delegate of the City 
Council at a conference respecting the desirability of constructing 
a railway from Melbourne to the reputed coal-fields of Cape 
Paterson. 
Alex. Cameron, a member of the conference, resident at Cran- 
bourne, a district through which the railway, if constructed, would 
pass, brought up and exhibited in Melbourne pieces of the meteoric 
masses, in the belief that they represented the outcrops of iron 
deposits extending for a distance of some 5 miles, the working of 
which in connexion with the Cape Paterson coal would be one of the 
commercial inducements to construct the railway. 
In a private note to the author, dated 9th January, 1900, Fitz- 
gibbon says that the pieces exhibited by Cameron comprised the 
horse-shoe previously referred to, and a small lump about the size 
of a man’s fist. 
To satisfy himself as to the correctness of Cameron’s statements, 
Fitzgibbon visited the locality, probably shortly before reading his 
note, on the 4th June, 1860 (19), and found that, whilst the rock of 
the district was seemingly ferruginous, the surface deposits of 
apparently pure iron were only two, viz.: — 
“ 1st. — A mass [referred to hereafter as Cranbourne No. 1] 
lying on the land of a Mr. McKay [Mackay, McKaye], 
on section 39, parish of Sherwood*, distant about 
* Ou Neumayer’s plan of the locality the position of tho Cranbourne No. 1 is shown on a 
section, which, on comparison with the plan of the parish of Sherwood, is seen to he section No. 
40, adjoining section No. 39 on the oast side. As far as could be ascertained, section No. 40 
belonged to Jas. Bruce, ho having applied for and obtained a Crown grant in 1858, while McKay, 
from whom, as stated later, Bruce bought tho meteorite, owned section No. 39. The latitude 
and longitude of the portion of the meteorite is given as 38° IRS. and 145° 20' E. respectively by 
Haidinger (33, p. 72), who, probably took them from Neumayer’s observations. In order to try 
and definitely settle the section upon which the specimen was actually found, Mr. G. Ditch burn 
of the Department of Lands and Survey, very kindly undertook to fix the position of the 
northern boundary corner of tho two sections. His results showed that the position 
given by Haidinger would place the meteorite considerably to the N.E. of either section. The 
observations, therefore, must be discarded as inaccurate, and the statement of Fitzgibbon that 
the specimen was discovered on section 39 be accepted as correct. Flight (22) hasAeprodueed 
Neumayer’s plan in illustration of his paper. 
[7] 
