The Gibeon shower of meteoritic irons in South-West Africa (With Plates I and II)

Abstract

The presence of much native iron in Great Namaqualand was heard of in 1836 by the traveller Sir James E. Alexander, but he himself did not see any of the masses, and the material he acquired consisted only of small fragments that had been detached by the natives for pointing their weapons. An approximate chemical analysis of this material, made by Sir John Herschel, proved it to be meteoritic. A fragment weighing 2 grams which Alexander presented to the Geological Society of London in 1838 was transferred to the British Museum collection of meteorites in 1911. This appears to be all of his material that has been preserved.Various other vague reports and travellers' tales have mentioned the presence of large masses of iron beyond the old mission station of Bethany, between there and Beersheba, and on the east side of the Great Fish River. A critical summary of these accounts was given by Sir Lazarus Fletcher in this magazine.