This is the first meteorite to be recorded from either Southern or Northern Rhodesia. It fell at about 12.45 p.m. on March 7, 1934, on the right bank of the Shawanoya river in the Mangwendi native reserve, about forty miles east of Salisbury. The latitude and longitude of the spot are 17° 39ʹ S., 31° 36ʹ E.

The recovery of the meteorite was made through the efforts of the Rev. F. J. Gits, S.J., who is in charge of St. Paul's Mission. Three loud detonations were heard from a direction north-east of the Mission Station followed by a loud rushing sound. Father Gits, who was out in the open at the time, involuntarily ducked his head. His inquiries failed at first to elucidate the cause of the explosions, which were also heard at Arcturus, Macheke, and Mtoko, that is, over a radius of at least fifty miles.

Apreliminary account of this fine mass, weighing 2520 lb., of meteoric iron was given in 1910 by L. Laybourne Smith, who at that time was Registrar of the South Australian School of Mines and Industries in Adelaide; but the promised detailed description with chemical analysis never appeared. Except for a small piece cut off one corner (upper left-hand corner in fig. 1) the mass is preserved intact in the Museum of that Institution, and none of the material appears to have been distributed to other museums. Casts of the mass were, however, made for the South Australian Museum in Adelaide, and one of them was presented to the British Museum in 1917 (B.M. 1917,360), where in the meteorite collection it is a very striking object (fig. 1).

Recently, at the suggestion of Mr. R. Bedford of the Kyancutta Museum, the Council of the South Australian School of Mines has generously presented to the British Museum a piece of this meteoric iron, together with the milling cuttings, with the request that the description of it should be completed.

The rapid determination of the chemical elements present in a mineral has been a desideratum ever since minerals became of economic use. Various methods have been employed, starting with blowpipe work, which in the early days proved of great value, especially in experienced hands, With the development of chemistry and the discovery of new elements, this process was largely abandoned in favour of the standard ' wet method' of chemical analysis. Later on, micro-chemical reactions came into limited employment. Here the appearance of easily crystallizable salts under the microscope was used for diagnostic purposes. This method has been extensively examined of late years and became so overloaded with precautions that its chief asset, that of rapidity and case of employment, has been largely lost. Quite recently colorimetric reactions have been applied to qualitative analysis. These appeared so promising that the present author was encouraged to endeavour to apply them to the examination of minerals.

A scheme for the qualitative determination of the commoner elements was published by G. Gutzeit in 1929, which at first sight looked very attractive.

In modern petrology increasing importance is being attached to the content of minor chemical constituents, the determination of which is now frequently required, whereas hitherto they have usually been disregarded. In consequence, methods for their accurate determination in small amount have not always been fully worked out. Copper is a case in point, and it is already clear that the method here advocated will show that this metal is much more widely distributed in rocks than is generally realized. Moreover, the use of a large sample, such as 20-50 grams, is no longer necessary.

In attempting to apply to rocks the very sensitive colorimetric method described by T. Callan and J. A. Russell Henderson, various difficulties were encountered, and modifications were developed whereby the method can be adapted to the determination of from 0·001-0·25 % of CuO in silicate rocks and minerals. The reagent used is sodium diethyl-dithio-carbamate, which gives a yellow colour with copper in slightly ammoniacal solution. The authors give a list of other metals which also give a coloration or turbidity with this reagent.

Well-Crystallized icositetrahedral garnets from Botallack, Cornwall, are preserved in most British mineral collections, but they have previously not been systematically examined. The original specimens were discovered in 1821 by a St. Just miner who dealt in minerals, and the occurrence is first referred to by Carne in his paper 'On the mineral productions and the geology of the parish of St. Just' as follows : 'About six months ago, a mass of beautiful garnets, of a deep red colour, was found imbedded in the rock, not far from low water mark at the foot of Chycornish Carn, about a quarter of a mile south of Botallack. Some of the crystals were larger than hazel-nuts, and most of them were twenty-four sided. Some specimens of a very superior order were procured, each having from one to two hundred crystals on its face.'