VII.] 
COSMIC DUST. 
329 
1. In the beginuing of December, 1871, there happened at 
Stockholm an exceedingly heavy fall of snow, perhaps the 
heaviest which has taken place in the memory of man. Several 
persons perished in the snow in the immediate neighbourhood 
of Stockholm. During the last days of the snowfall I had 
about a cubic metre of snow collected and melted in a vessel. 
It left a residue of black powder, which contained grains of 
metallic iron that were attracted by the magnet. 
2. In the middle of March, 1872, a similar 
investigation was made by my brother, Karl 
Nordenskiold, in a remote forest settle¬ 
ment, Evois, in Finland. Here, too, was 
obtained, on the melting of the snow, a 
small residuum, consisting of a black powder 
containing metallic iron. 
3. On the 8th August and 2nd September 
of the same year, I examined, north of 
Spitzbergen, in 80°N.L., and 13° to 15°E.L., 
the layer of snow that there covered the 
ice. The nature of this layer is shown by 
the accompanying woodcut, in which 1, is 
new^-fallen snow; 2, a layer of hardened old 
snow, eight mm. in thickness ; 3, a layer of 
snow conglomerated to a crystalline granular 
mass; and 4, common granular hardened 
snow. Layer 3 was full of small black grains, among which 
were found numerous metallic particles that were attracted by 
the magnet, and w’ere found to contain iron, cobalt, and possibly 
nickel also. 
4. On the melting of 500 gram, hail, which fell in Stockholm 
in the autumn of 1873, similar metallic particles containing 
cobalt (nickel) were obtained, which, in this case, might possibly 
have come from the neighbouring roofs, because the hail w^as 
collected in a yard surrounded by houses roofed with sheet-iron 
SECTION OF THE UPPER 
PART OF THE SNOW ON 
A DRIFT-ICE FIELD IN 
80° N.L. 
One-lialf the natural size. 
