* Astronomy

THE DELHI METEORITE (No. 238).
According to a letter, dated 19th February, 1898, from Mr. J. Greson, Inspector of Railway Police, Allahabad, to the Reverend Father Francotte, S.J., of St. Xavier's College, Calcutta, some natives who were working in the fields in the evening of the 18th October, 1897, saw at about 7-30 P.M. a meteor of unusual brilliancy; a few seconds after, a noise similar to thunder was heard, and about the same time two stone-like bodies (each weighing about a pound) were heard to fall. They were black on the outside, but when broken were light blue or greyish.
Unfortunately this occurrence was not brought to our notice till 1903, and it was then impossible to trace these stones, partly on account of a change of the district officials, but no doubt partly due to the reluctance of the owners of the pieces, into which the stones had broken, to admit their possession. Hence the only specimen of this fall in the Geological Survey Museum is a tiny fragment sent with the above-cited letter by Mr. Greson to Father Francotte, who kindly presented it to our collection. It weighs only 0·79 gramme and has a little crust on one side. The fractured surfaces are light grey and show abundant tiny specks, probably of nickel-iron in a whitish matrix through which are scattered brownish and greyish granules. The place of the fall was a village some 5 miles from Delhi near the famous Kutb Minar.
Read more (PDF)