METEORITES OF NORTH AMERICA. 63 



The chemical analysis of the iron has been made by Mr. H. W. Nichols, the chemist of the Field Columbian 

 Museum, and is as given below: 



Fe 91. 99 



Ni 7. 38 



Co 42 



Cu 01 



Si 08 



P 15 



S 06 



100. 09 

 The larger part of this Billings siderite has taken its place in the Ward-Coonley Collection of Meteorites. 



BIBLIOGRAPHY. 



1. 1905: Ward. The Billings meteorite. Amer. Journ. Sci., 4th ser., vol. 19, pp. 240-242. 



BISHOPVILLE. 



Sumter County, South Carolina. 



Latitude 34° 13' N., longitude 80° 16' W. 



Stone. Veined chladnite (Chla) of Brezina; Chladnite (type 52) of Meunier. 



Fell March 25, 1843; described 1846. 



Weight, 6 kgs. (13 lbs). 



The first mention of this stone seems to have been by Shepard 1 in 1846 in a description 

 of the minerals of meteorites. In this account he mentions hyposulphates of magnesia and 

 soda (epsom and glauber's salts), chlorides of calcium and magnesium, and soluble silica, as dis- 

 solved from the Bishopville stone, and he remarks that sulphurous acid is evolved from the stone 

 by fresh fracture or slight friction. He describes three new species to which he gives the names 

 apatoid, iodolite, and chladnite, the latter forming more than two-thirds of the stone. 



In 1848 Shepard 2 described the phenomena of fall and the characters of the stone as 

 follows : 



For my first knowledge of this, the most remarkable of all the hitherto described meteorites of the United States, 

 I am indebted to Dr. J. C. Haynsworth, of Sumterville, South Carolina. His letter to me, dated April 7, 1846, which 

 is here given, contains all the information respecting its fall, which I have thus far been able to obtain. "I have in 

 possession a meteoric stone which fell in March, 1843, near Bishopville, in the northern part of Sumter district. The 

 passage of the meteor and its explosion were witnessed by many spectators, over a region of country of 30 or 40 miles 

 in diameter. The descent of the stone itself, also, was observed by a number of negroes. Their terror was so great 

 on seeing the excavation it produced, the scattering of the soil, and more than all by the insupportable sulphurous 

 odors with which the air was filled, that they fled in a panic from the field. On the following morning, however, 

 headed by a white man they returned to the spot, and after digging 3 feet or more in a sandy soil they came upon 

 the stone which I now possess. That it is meteoric is as well known as possible, perhaps, in the absence of a scientific 

 analysis. It has more the appearance of limestone than of any other rock with which I am acquainted, though it is 

 much heavier than the same bulk of limerock. It has, moreover, numerous particles resembling oxide of iron diffused 

 through it. It is coated with a dark shining surface, resembling glass that has been stained with some metallic oxide. 

 When first dug up the Bulphurous odor was said to have been overpowering. This has now subsided, though it can 

 be reproduced by friction or slight warmth. It begins to suffer decomposition from the access of air and moisture to the 

 interior, as portions of the vitreous coating have been removed for specimens by persons who have examined it." 



The stone was purchased for me by Dr. Haynsworth and is now in my possession. Its weight was 13 pounds. 



It measures 9 inches in its longest diameter by 5.75 and 5 in its transverse dimensions. It is rounded at its thicker 

 extremity, from whence, after bulging somewhat, it gradually tapers to the smaller end, which is obviously pyramidal, 

 with four sides. 



Being an uncommonly fragile stone, the glazed coating had disappeared from the angles and the ends of the mass, 

 leaving not more than two-thirds of the surface protected by the original crust, which is generally smooth, of a mottled 

 aspect, the colors being black, white, and bluish gray, not unlike certain clouded marbles. The black portions are 

 glossy and obsidianlike, the gray and white for the most part dull, though the white is sometimes shining and trans- 

 parent, like enamel on porcelain. It is traversed by frequent cracks or fissures, which penetrate for some distance 

 into the stone, the walls of these fissures being themselves partially fused for a little way inward from the exterior. 



The interior view of the stone is no less peculiar. The pearly white color of its basis and its feldspathic crystalliza- 

 tion, at first view, make it difficult to regard it as anything else than a decomposing mass of albitic granite. A nearer 

 inspection, however, satisfies the observer that the white substance (chladnite, which is nearly as tender as laumontite) 

 is different from any terrestrial mineral. It is seen, moreover, to be traversed with little black veins, and here and there 

 to include little grains of deeply rusted nickeliferous iron, some of which are as large as a pea. Black grains and even 



