It was early noticed that these stones consisted either of a peculiar alloy of iron, or of minerals of volcanic origin, or both; and the first hypothesis was that they had just been shot out from terrestrial volcanoes. As they were however found, as in the case of the Connecticut meteorite, thousands of miles from any active volcanoes, and were seen to fall, not vertically down, but as if shot horizontally overhead, this view was abandoned. Next the idea was suggested that they were coming from volcanoes in the moon; and though this had little to recommend it, it was adopted in default of a better, and entertained down to a comparatively very recent period. These stones are now collected in museums, where any one may see them, and are to be had of the dealers in such articles by any who wish to buy them. They are coming to have such a considerable money value that, in one case at least, a lawsuit has been instituted for their possession between the finder, who had picked the stones up on ground leased to him, and claimed them under the tenant’s right to wild game, and his landlord, who thought they were his as part of the real estate. Leaving the decision of this novel law-point to the lawyers, let us notice some facts now well established. The fall is usually preceded by a thundering sound, sometimes followed or accompanied by a peculiar noise described as like that of a flock of ducks rising from the water. The principal sound is often, however, far louder than any thunder, and sometimes of stunning violence. At night this is accompanied by a blaze of lightning-like suddenness and whiteness, and the stones commonly do not fall vertically, but as if shot from a cannon at long range. They are usually burning hot, but in at least one authenticated instance one was so intensely cold that it could not be handled. They are of all sizes, from tons to ounces, comparatively few, however, exceeding a hundred-weight, and they are oftenest of a rounded form, or looking like pieces of what was originally round, and usually wholly or partly covered with a glaze formed of the fused substance itself. If we slowly heat a lump of loaf sugar all through, it will form a pasty mass, while we may also hold it without inconvenience in our fingers to the gas-flame a few seconds, when it will be melted only on the side next the sudden heat, and rounded by the melting. The sharp contrast of the melted and the rough side is something like that of the meteorites; and just as the sugar does not burn the hand, though close to where it is brought suddenly to a melting heat, a mass of ironstone may be suddenly heated on the surface, while it remains cold on the inside. But, however it got there, the stone undoubtedly comes from the intensely cold spaces above the upper air; and what is the source of such a heat that it is melted in the cold air, and in a few seconds?