METEORIC STONES.

SOME bookworm of the fifteenth century, poring over a rare manuscript of Livy, may have chanced to read that in the early days of Rome, when Tullus Hostilius was king, word was brought to the Senate that a shower of stones like hail had just fallen on the Alban Mount, and the Patres Conscripti, being sceptical, sent a commission to inquire about the matter, who found it was true as narrated. Had our scholar taken the book to the wisest natural philosopher of his day, and asked his opinion about the story, he might have been answered in terms such as these :-"Learned friend, what thou hast read is nought but a fiction. This narrative of Livius is but one form of that myth unto which the nations of antiquity so commonly gave their belief. Take as an example that black stone which had its place over the gate of that temple of Diana at Ephesus which the ancients held for one of the seven wonders of the world. The priests pretended that the goddess herself had thrown down that mighty stone from heaven. No, my learned brother, there are indeed divers marvellous stones, chiefly that one which can turn tin and lead into gold; which we, philosophers of Hermes, do not cease with much zeal to seek after; and which, I confide to thee in all secresy, I, thy unworthy friend, am just on the eve of obtaining. The planets, truly, rule over the actions and the destinies of men, and there can be no subtler or wiser pursuit than to seek out their occult influences, but no true philosopher believes that they fall from their houses in the empyrean."

And how, courteous and intelligent reader, have you come to believe when the title of this paper caught your

eye, that it was to be a dissertation on facts, and not a play of fancy? You never saw a stone fall from the sky, nor did any of your friends ever see one. You have noticed, I dare say, the earthy and metallic masses in the British Museum, which bear such labels as-"Meteoric Stone, which fell Dec. 13th, 1795 (at past 3 o'clock P.M.), in the Parish of Thwing, East Riding, Yorkshire." And, perhaps, you have seen similar collections at Vienna or other places; but then you know very well that for anything you can see to the contrary they may have come from the nearest iron-furnace. How do you come to believe in their descent from the airy spheres? Why, like a sensible man, you believe it on the testimony of others; just because there is such a mass of varied and concurrent testimony, that to esteem it all false is more difficult than to credit the wonderful fact, that from time to time huge stones have actually fallen from the skies; and though on the one side you may hear that among living scientific men, there may be one or two still sceptical, and though on the other hand you find philosophers who see an aërolite in every bit of rough iron that is picked up in any unaccountable position, your faith is unshaken.

At the close of the fifteenth century, Professor Bautenschoen, of Colmar, called the attention of the learned world to the accounts of the great stone which was said to have fallen from the skies on the 7th of November, 1492. It weighed 260 lbs., and was kept in a church at Ensisheim, and King Maximilian and many other notable people went to look at it, but could make nothing of it unless a miracle.

In 1510, there fell in Lombardy a shower of stones, one of which weighed 120 lbs. The historians have found in it a political signification.

We have good evidence that in the territories of Jalindher, in Persia, in 1620, a large mass of iron fell hissing hot,

and buried itself in the earth. The king ordered a sabre, knife, and dagger to be made of it, but it was not malleable, and had to be mixed with other iron before what was required could be done.

But till sixty years ago scarcely any attention was given to these meteoric showers; even the falling of one weighing 50 lbs. near Flamborough Head scarcely roused the curiosity of the British savans; but when about that time Major Williams brought to this country some fragments of a stone that fell at Benares, Sir Joseph Banks caused them to be analysed, and the chemist's report showed them to be so different from anything commonly found on the earth, that the united testimony pretty well established the fact that there are such things as meteorites.

And just at that time the skies seemed intent on convincing men that meteoric stones were indeed no airy imaginations, but "hard facts." There occurred some most startling exhibitions of this character, and that on a grand scale. At Landes in France, at Sienna in Italy, they fell. One of the narratives of the time, well vouched for by numerous witnesses, we will abridge from Rees' Cyclopedia: "On Tuesday, April 26th, 1802, about one in the afternoon, the weather being serene, there was observed from Caenpont, Andemer and the environs of Alençon, Falaise, and Verneuil, a fiery globe with a very brilliant splendour, which moved in the atmosphere with great rapidity. Some moments after there was heard at Laigle and the environs of that city, to the extent of more than thirty leagues in every direction, a violent explosion which lasted five or six minutes. At first there were three or four reports like those of a cannon, followed by a kind of discharge resembling a fire of musketry, after which was heard a dreadful rumbling like the beating of a drum. and the sky serene, except a few clouds such as are fre

The air was calm

quently observed. This noise proceeded from a small cloud which had a rectangular form, the largest side being in a direction from east to west. It appeared motionless all the time the phenomenon lasted, but the vapour of which it was composed was projected momentarily from the different sides by the effect of the different explosions. This cloud was about half a league to the N.N.E. of the town of Laigle. It was at a great elevation; for the inhabitants of two hamlets, a league distant from each other, saw it at the same time above their heads. In the whole canton over which this cloud hovered, a hissing noise like that of a stone discharged from a sling was heard, and a multitude of mineral masses were seen to fall at the same time. These stones fell over a space of about two leagues and a half in length, by nearly one league in breadth. The largest of those that fell weighed 17 lbs., and they were the first to descend. The whole number was certainly above 2000 or 3000."

A still greater phenomenon of the same kind occurred at Weston in Connecticut on the 14th of December, 1807. There also was observed a globe of fire, which seemed to make three bounds before it disappeared, and at each bound shot a shower of stones, sprinkling them along a course of nine or ten miles. One mass was seen to fall with a streak of light, and the shock produced by its concussion against the earth was felt; and when the proprietor of the field where it fell went to look after his frightened cows, he found that a ridge of micaceous schist had been shivered; and there, in a hole five feet long by four and a half broad, and three deep, and all around, mixed with torn pieces of turf and earth, lay the fragments of a meteoric mass, which in its integrity must have weighed 200 lbs. Every now and then since similar occurrences have been heard of. Sometimes, also, nearer home; as, for instance, at a quarry near Glasgow, when two men and two boys heard a noise,

thought a judgment was coming upon them, then found themselves surrounded by "Oh! such a reek!" and a lump of iron smashed a drain not far from where they were standing.

When these stones descend they generally enter the ground to some depth, and that in a slanting direction. If picked up shortly after falling they are hot, and sometimes have a sulphureous smell; their form is of the most varied character, often jagged, yet the edges are generally somewhat rounded, as though they had been exposed to the action of fire, and they are usually covered by a black crust. Their composition is highly remarkable. Almost all known meteorites consist essentially of two distinct parts-an earthy mineral and a mass of metal, the two being intermixed in every conceivable way and proportion; but some are purely metallic. The earthy mineral is a crystallised silicate of magnesia, which is well known elsewhere by the name of olivine; but it is often impure through the admixture of alumina and other substances. The metallic mass is very remarkable. It is iron mixed with a small quantity of nickel and cobalt, together with phosphorus and sulphur ; indeed iron pyrites may often be detected, and a compound of a similar appearance, which has received the name Schreibersite, and which exists nowhere but in meteoric masses. It is a phosphuret of nickel and iron.

Beside these substances, the presence of carbon, chlorine, chromium, copper, manganese, calcium, potassium, sodium, tin, zinc, and in one instance lead, has been noticed, but never in any large proportion. Titanium, yttrium, and zirconium, are doubtful. The black crust is simply oxide of iron, formed, no doubt, during the transit of the heated metal through the atmosphere. What is very noticeable is, that metallic iron, or phosphuret of iron, occurs nowhere in any mineral commonly belonging to the earth, except,