194 
ME. N. STOEY-MASKELYNE ON THE 
ill India on the 2nd of December, 1852, near the station named Busti, situate about 
halfway between Goruckpur on the east and Fyzabad on the west, and consequently 
some 45 miles from Goruckpur, and nearly in 26° 45' north latitude and 82° 42' east lon- 
gitude. 
For the account of the circumstances attending the fall of this meteorite I am indebted 
to Mr. George Osborne, at that time Resident at the Busti Station, to whose care 
science owes the preservation of the stone that fell there. He presented it to the East- 
India Company, and for several years it stood in the Library of the India House. It was 
presented to the British Museum when Lord Halifax was Secretary of State for India, by 
the Secretary of State in Council. Mr. Osborne describes the fall as having taken place 
at 10 h 10 m a.m., announcing itself by a sudden explosion much louder and of a more 
detonating character than an ordinary thunderclap, increasing in intensity towards its 
termination. There was no trace of cloud in the sky, and the report lasted for a time 
that Mr. Osborne estimated at from three to five minutes. At Busti the report was not 
accompanied by the effects of concussion, while at Goruckpur it shook the glass 
and doors in the houses, the sound appearing at the latter station to approach in a 
direction from W.N.W". At Busti it seemed to one facing the north to come from the 
zenith ; and though heard so loudly at Busti, and apparently still more loudly at Go- 
ruckpur, it was not noticed at a station thirty miles west of Busti. The course of the 
stone was probably a north-easterly to a south-westerly one, the explosion that shattered 
it having occurred soon after it had passed the longitude of Goruckpur. The stones fell 
at a place six miles south of Busti, and Mr. Osborne obtained a small one weighing 
about three pounds. How many fell was not ascertained, but all the others have been 
lost sight of, Mr. Osborne having in vain endeavoured to obtain a second. 
The aspect of the specimen of this aerolite which Mr. Osborne preserved is in many 
respects very similar to the stone that fell at Bishopville, in South Carolina, U.S.A., on 
the 25th of March, 1843. The form and actual size of the stone are represented in 
Plate XXIII., in which two views from opposite points are given, the orientation being 
shown by the position of the letters A, B, C, D in the two views. The crust which 
coated the larger part of the stone was exceptional in character. At the flat end this 
crust was of a dark yellowish brown, with a few yellowish-white porphyritic-looking 
patches where the brown crust was thinner. In the large hollow portion on one side, 
near to C in the lower view, a yellowish enamel mingled with a very dark grey enamel 
is also relieved by white markings like the white felspar of a porphyry. In other places 
these white or yellowish-white markings, with their angular but unsymmetrical outlines, 
are seen sharply contrasted with the black-grey enamel only. It is difficult to connect 
the outlines of these porphyry-like markings with those of crystals of any mineral under- 
lying them. Over augite and enstatite alike, where they occur in this stone, the crust 
seems to be similar in its features. I can only suppose the natural hue of the crust, 
due to the fusion of the silicates, to be a pale yellow ; but that the metallic nickeliferous 
iron, found here and there in grains of considerable size, has, during the fusion and 
