These Australian tektites and the tektites from many other countries around the world are a problem to meteoriticists. The question is, are they really meteorites? Many investigators believe that the answer is yes, and they are inclined to add to the three main divisions of true meteorites listed in the preceding chapter, a fourth: the tektites. These mysterious glassy objects occur in such widely separated localities as Czechoslovakia, the Philippine Islands, Borneo, the Ivory Coast of Africa, Australia, Indo-China, Texas, Malaya, and Java. In these and still other areas, they have been found by the thousands in surface deposits of sand, clay, and gravel. [Illustration: (left) “Flanged buttons” from Australia. (right) Several sizes of “dumbbells” from Australia. See p. 136.] Tektites have never been seen to fall. In spite of this fact, as we noted above, a number of scientists believe that, like the meteorites, the tektites really did come from outer space but, that they fell to earth before man was here to see them come down—or at least before he had acquired the means and skill to make lasting records of such an occurrence. Tektites are usually quite small, weighing between 1 and 100 grams, although a few of much larger size have been found. One large specimen from the Philippines weighed about ½ pound. Two giant tektites, one weighing ¾ pound and the other over 1 pound, are in the collection of the British Museum. In composition, tektites are an impure silica-glass containing low percentages of the oxides of such elements as iron, magnesium, calcium, and titanium. If tektite fragments are held under a lamp and observed by reflected light, their thicker parts generally appear to be jet-black. If, however, these same specimens are held up _between_ the observer and the light, then their thin razor-sharp edges are seen to be bottle-green, yellow-green, brownish, or even colorless. In shape, many tektites are roundish or oval. Others are shaped like dumbbells, ladles, canoes, and teardrops. So they are known by those descriptive terms. One particularly interesting example is the unusual “flanged button” of Australia. Tektites of this type look like miniature South American gold-pans, the _bateas_, heaped high with pay dirt. Australian gold-field workers regarded these tektites as magical, and used them as good-luck charms. Superstitious American gold-seekers brought them into the United States all the way from Australia! [Illustration: (above) Rounded tektite from Texas. (below) Deeply grooved bediasite from Texas.] Some tektites (for example, many of the “bediasites” from Texas) are deeply grooved and channeled, and have a very jagged and irregular appearance. Even the smoother tektite surfaces are characterized by flow lines, flow ridges, and bubble pits.