forges, even had it possessed the character of the common iron. In one
of the rooms of the British Museum there is a specimen of a large mass
which was found, and still remains, on the plain of Otumba, in the
district of Buenos Ayres. The specimen alone weighs 1400 lbs., and the
weight of the whole mass, which lies half buried in the ground, is
computed to be thirteen tons. In the province of Bahia, in Brazil,
another block has been discovered weighing upward of six tons.
Considering the situation of these masses, with the details of their
chemical analysis, the presumption is clearly warranted that they owe
their origin to the same causes that have formed and projected the
aerolites to the surface. With reference to the Siberian iron a general
tradition prevails among the Tartars that it formerly descended from the
heavens. A curious extract, translated from the Emperor Tchangire's
memoirs of his own reign is given in a paper communicated to the Royal
Society, which speaks of the fall of a metallic mass in India. The
prince relates, that in the year 1620 (of our era) a violent explosion
was heard at a village in the Punjaub, and at the same time a luminous
body fell through the air on the earth. The officer of the district
immediately repaired to the spot where it was said the body fell, and
having found the place to be still hot, he caused it to be dug. He found
that the heat kept increasing till they reached a lump of iron violently
hot. This was afterward sent to court, where the emperor had it weighed
in his presence, and ordered it to be forged into a sabre, a knife, and
a dagger. After a trial the workmen reported that it was not malleable,
but shivered under the hammer; and it required to be mixed with one
third part of common iron, after which the mass was found to make
excellent blades. The royal historian adds, that on the incident of this
_iron of lightning_ being manufactured, a poet presented him with a
distich that, "during his reign the earth attained order and regularity;
that raw iron fell from lightning, which was, by his world-subduing
authority, converted into a dagger, a knife, and two sabres."

A multitude of theories have been devised to account for the origin of
these remarkable bodies. The idea is completely inadmissible that they
are concretions formed within the limits of the atmosphere. The
ingredients that enter into their composition have never been discovered
in it, and the air has been