52 MEMOIRS NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES, VOL. XIII. 



BIBLIOGRAPHY. 



1. 1903: Miller. Science, n. s., vol. 17, pp. 114-115. 



2. 1903: Ward. Amer. Journ. Sci., 4th ser., vol. 15, pp. 31G-319. (With cut showing external appearance of the 13 



lb. mass.) 



3. 1903: Miller. Science, n. s., vol. 18, pp. 243-244. 



4. 1905: Ward. Proc. Rochester Acad. Sci., vol. 4, pp. 193-202. (Illustrations of largest stone.) 



5. 1907: Farrington. Meteorite Studies II. Publ. Field Columbian Mus., Geol. ser., vol. 3, pp. 111-112. 



Battle River, see Victoria. 



BEAR CREEK. 



Jefferson County, Colorado. 



Here also Aeriotopos, Bear River, Colorado, Denver County, and Jefferson. 



Latitude, 39° 48' N., longitude, 105° 5' W. 



Iron. Fine octahedrite (Of) of Brezina; Caillite (type 18) of Meunier. 



Found, 1866; described, 1866. 



Weight (estimated), 227 kgs. (500 lbs.). 



The first account of this meteorite was by Shepard 1 under the title of "Colorado'- and 

 was as follows: 



If neither of the two preceding irons are likely to be represented in our collections there is certainly a prospect 

 that it will be quite otherwise with the mass just discovered upon the eastern slope of the Sierra Madre Range of the 

 Rocky Mountains. 



For my acquaintance with this discovery I am indebted to the kindness of Mr. J. Alden Smith, a practical miner- 

 alogist, at present residing in Colorado. This gentleman has transmitted to me by mail a very interesting cleavage 

 lamina, 1.5 inches long by three-fifths of an inch wide and one-eighth thick, and which shows on one edge a portion 

 of the natural coating of the meteorite. His letter, dated June 21st, is very brief, though it contains important particu- 

 lars which I can not withhold from the scientific public until his return to the East in the coming autumn. By means 

 of the promised specimens he expects to bring with him on his return, I hope to be able to give a more circumstantial 

 account of the discovery. 



The detection of the mass, and wliich has occurred only within a few weeks, is due to Messrs. Wilson and Morrison, 

 by whom Mr. Smith was shown to the locality. It is situated within a very deep ravine, at the elevation of 8,000 feet 

 above the ocean and surrounded with high mountains on all sides. The exact dimensions of the mass are not given; 

 but its weight is supposed to be several hundred pounds. " It seems to have struck a crevice in the solid ledge, and 

 thereby to have been much shattered at one extremity — a circumstance that enabled the finders to detach several 

 small pieces." They inferred the fall to have taken place at a very remote period, as the mass exhibited a coating of 

 oxyds half an inch thick. "Its composition is principally the native metals, iron, nickel, cobalt, a little manganese, 

 and a trace of copper. In some parts, iron forms the chief ingredient, while in others nickel and cobalt are largely 

 in excess." 



The specimen in my possession exceeds every iron I have seen in the perfection of its crystallization. It is as 

 coarsely crystalline as that of Arva (Hungary) or Cocke County (Tennessee), but much more intimately laminated with 

 schreibersite than either. The laminae of this substance are unusually thick and possess a light color together with a 

 bright luster. As they are disposed in accordance with the octahedral cleavage of the iron they render the Widman- 

 stiittian figures strikingly apparent without polishing or the use of acids. No pyrites or graphite is visible in my speci- 

 men. Specific gravity=7. 43. 



Further details were given by Henry 2 the same year in the American Journal of Science, 

 as follows: 



Professor Henry has transmitted to the editors a note respecting the discovery of a mass of iron in a deep gulch 

 near Bear Creek, Colorado Territory, about 25 or 30 miles from Denver, and 800 or 1,000 feet below the top of a steep 

 hill. Mr. James L. Wilson, who describes it in the Daily News published at Denver, Colorado Territory, May 14th, 

 states that it was at first mistaken by himself and Mr. G. R. Morrison, who accompanied him, and who had seen it before, 

 for the "blossom" or "iron hat" of a mineral lode. "It is irregular in form, being about 22 inches long, 9 to 10 broad, 

 and 14 wide. Four of its faces are flat and two rounded. This form indicates it to be a fragment of a much larger 

 mass. It is magnetic. Its weight is estimated at 500 pounds. The force with which it struck the rocks at the time 

 of its fall had so shattered one end as to enable the discoverers to break off a piece that weighed about 11 pounds. Its 

 composition appears to be iron, nickel, cobalt, and copper, unequally distributed in its mass. In one part the nickel 

 and cobalt are largely in excess of the other metals, while in other parts iron forms the chief ingredient. These metals 

 are aggregated and highly crystallized. A coating of the oxyd of iron half an inch thick has taken .the place of the 

 shining black crust observed on aerolites when they first reach the earth. The less oxydizable metals, nickel and 

 cobalt, still remain in their metallic state in this coating of iron rust." 



It is pretty certain from this not satisfactory description, that this is an example of an iron meteor-mass found 

 where it has fallen, the shattering of the mass and of the adjacent rocks being rarely observed. It was exposed by a 



