304 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY. 



Philadelphia, with a letter from the Rev. Mr. Davis, of Liberia, in which he 

 says: "I have seen and conversed with a number of natives, who affirm 

 that it is actually the pure ore, or just as broken from its native bed." This 

 specimen, during the past year, was placed in the hands of Dr. A. A. Hayes, 

 of Boston, by Rev. Joseph Tracy, for chemical examination. This examina- 

 tion by Dr. Hayes brought to light the remarkable fact that the iron in ques- 

 tion was pure native iron, not meteoric, but probably occurring as a deposit 

 by itself, unalloyed with any other metals. The following is the report of Dr. 

 Hayes on the .subject: 



The specimen had been drilled and filed when I first saw it. The filed 

 surface arrested my attention, as the arrangement of the particles of the iron 

 resembled that of the unalloyed part of meteoric iron, and was unlike that of 

 any iron that had been hammered or rolled. Artificial iron is presented to 

 us under two forms ; first, that of crude or cast iron, which, always granular, 

 is brittle, though sometimes malleable hi a slight degree ; second, wrought or 

 ductile iron, the product of refining either cast iron, or as the result of skillful 

 reduction from an ore, in a forge fire, by alternate heating and hammering. 

 In either case, the particles of the iron have certain definite forms, arranged 

 as crystals in the cast iron, which are broken down and rearranged in the 

 ductile iron, as plates, or scales, or longitudinal fibers. 



The native iron presents only very minute crystalline grains, which have 

 not been broken or blended. Their color is lighter gray than that of any 

 hammered iron. They are without much luster, resembling iron which has 

 been aggregated by electrical deposition. The mass is tough ; and when a 

 fragment is broken, repeated bending and doubling is required, and the frac- 

 ture is hackly. The texture is not uniform. Some parts are less compact 

 than other portions, rendering the specific gravity of the mass less than that 

 of other iron. This inequality is due in part to the presence, in the mass, of 

 crystalline quartz, magnetic oxyd of iron, and a zeolite mineral, having a soda 

 basis in part ; conclusively proving that the iron has never been melted arti- 

 ficially. 



Its chemical composition is 



Pure iron, 98'40 



Quartz grains, magnetic oxyd, i ., . fift 



Iron crystals, and zeolites. f ' 



100-00 



There are no other metals present : a fact which prevents us from placing 

 this iron in the class of meteorlites. And the absence of carbon in any form 

 removes all doubt in regard to its being possibly of artificial formation. 



Every form of iron which has been the subject of manufacture, contains 

 carbon. And it is an interesting observation in this connection, that, in the 

 large number of samples of ancient irons and those produced by semi-civilized 

 people, which I have analyzed, not only has carbon been present, but the 

 proportion was always larger than exists in the iron of commercial people. 

 It appears that the rude workmen, in producing this useful metal, stop at that 

 point where the half-refined iron is sufficiently ductile to take, under the 



