II.—A Chapter in the History of Meteorites

Abstract

Tschermak examined two microscopic sections of the Ovifak rocks, and compared them with sections of the meteorites of Jonsac, Juvinas, Petersburg, and Stannern, which consist chiefly of augite and anorthite, with little or no nickel-iron; they form a class which G. Rose termed ‘eucritic.’ Both sections exhibit a crust, as meteorites possess; it is, however, so altered by oxidation, that it is not possible to determine whether it is the fused crust usually noticed on a meteorite. The crystals of felspar, which, according to Nauckhoff's analyses, must be regarded as anorthite, are fully developed; they penetrate the augite, iron, and magnetite, and must evidently have been formed before them. They are completely transparent, and have but few and large cavities, which are filled, partly with black granules, partly with a brown substance of irregular form; some traversing the length of the crystals are filled with a transparent glassy substance. The augite is of a light greenish-brown hue, traversed here and there by flaws; it fills gaps between the other constituents, as has been often observed in dolerites and diabases, and encloses individual black grains. In the section containing iron the colourless felspar encloses a black or brown substance running the length of the crystals, or dust-like fine black granules, or larger round transparent bodies of a violet colour, which may be the mineral Nauckhoff regards as spinel.