Democratic Sentinel, Volume 12, Number 26, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 20 July 1888 — The Meteorites. [ARTICLE]

The Meteorites.

It is probable that the meteorites reaching the earth average several per day, states Dr. Hans Reuseh, thongh most of them escape observation, and not more than four or five falls are recorded yearly. These bodies, which this author regards with Prof. Newton as bits of comets, are of two primary groups—stony meteorites and iron meteorites. The two principal minerals composing the stony meteorites are enstatite and olivine (or chrysolite)— both found in the earth, though rather rare—besides which are sprinkled in occasional grains of iron. Their microscopic structure shows that these meteorites were originally cooled from a molten condition, like the crust of our globe; and it has been assumed that the interior of the earth consists of a heavy substance resembling that of the meteorites. The second group comprises masses of native iron, with more or less nickel, and an occasional sprinkling of stony grains. Such meteorites were formenly supposed to be the only source of unoxidized iron in nature, but the great masses of so-called meteoric iron found by Nordenskjold in Greenland some years ago were proven to be only lumps of metal weathered out of the rock on which they were discovered. The structure of some meteorites gives evidence that their orbits have had the same striking form as tliose of comets, which alternately approach close to the sun and then recede far from it.— Arkansaw Traveler.