f its distinctly
metallic character. Falls of objects of this particular type are not so
frequent as are those of the stony meteorites; in fact, there are only a
few known instances of meteoric irons having been actually seen to
fall, while the observed falls of stony meteorites are to be counted in
scores or in hundreds. The inference is that the iron meteorites are
much less frequent than the stony ones. This is, however, not the
impression that the visitor to the Museum would be likely to receive. In
that extensive collection the meteoric irons are by far the most
striking objects. The explanation is not difficult. Those gigantic
masses of iron are unquestionably meteoric: no one doubts that this is
the case. Yet the vast majority of them have never been seen to fall;
they have simply been found, in circumstances which point unmistakably
to their meteoric nature. Suppose, for instance, that a traveller on one
of the plains of Siberia or of Central America finds a mass of metallic
iron lying on the surface of the ground, what explanation can be
rendered of such an occurrence? No one has brought the iron there, and
there is no iron within hundreds of miles. Man never fashioned that
object, and the iron is found to be alloyed with nickel in a manner that
is always observed in known meteorites, and is generally regarded as a
sure indication of a meteoric origin. Observe also, that as iron
perishes by corrosion in our atmosphere, that great mass of iron cannot
have lain where it is for indefinite ages; it must have been placed
there at some finite time. Only one source for such an object is
conceivable; it must have fallen from the sky. On the same plains the
stony meteorites have also fallen in hundreds and in thousands, but they
crumble away in the course of time, and in any case would not arrest the
attention of the traveller as the irons are likely to do. Hence it
follows, that although the stony meteorites seem to fall much more
frequently, yet, unless they are actually observed at the moment of
descent, they are much more liable to be overlooked than the meteoric
irons. Hence it is that the more prominent objects of the British
collection are the meteoric irons.

We have said that a noise accompanied the descent of the Rowton
siderite, and it is on record that a loud explosion took place when the
meteorite fell at Ensisheim. In this we have a characteristic feature of
the phenomenon. Nearly all the descents of meteo