These characteristics of identity have been observed at all
the different epochs and in the most various parts of the earth in which
these meteoric stones have been found. This striking and early-observed
analogy of physiognomy in the denser meteoric masses is, however, met by
many exceptions regarding individual points. What differences, for
instance, do we not find between the malleable masses of for instance, do we
not find between the malleable masses of iron of Hradeschina in the district
of Agram, those from the shores of the Sisim in the government of Jeniseisk,
rendered so celebrated by Pallas, or those which I brought from Mexico,* all
of which contain 96 per cent. of iron, from the a?‘rolites of Siena, in
which the iron scarcely amounts to 2 per cent., or the earthy a?‘rolite of
Alais (in the Department du Gard), which broke up in water, or, lastly, from
those of Jonzac and Javenas, which contained no metallic iron, but presented
a
p 130
mixture of oryctognostically distinct crystalline compoonents!
[footnote] *Humboldt, 'Essai Politique sur la Nouv. Espagne' (2de ??dit.),
t. iii. p. 310.
These differences have led mineralogists to separate these cosmical masses
into two classes, namely, those containing nickelliferous meteoric iron, and
those consisting of fine or coarsely-granular meteoric dust.
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