METEORITES OF NORTH AMERICA. 73 



difficulty on account of their great friability. The meteorite has a varnishlike coating. This is marbleized gray and 

 white with some small black veins. It is distinguished from the crust of other meteorites not only by its color but by 

 a more lively luster in certain parts. 



Tschermak 14 grouped the meteorite as chladnite and described it as follows : 



This aggregate chladnite is so far known in only one meteorite, that of Bishopville. The stone is coarse-grained 

 and consists chiefly of nearly white, porous enstatite. Rose remarked also other white grains though he did not deter- 

 mine them. It is my opinion that they are plagioclase. The third ingredient is troilite. The stone has a marbleized 

 crust, partly colorless, partly black, white, bluish, and gray. The enstatite forms show large and small crystals. On 

 one of the latter I recognized a sharp boundary. The section was almost parallel to a 100. The termination of the 

 crystals was triangular, one face corresponding to the zone pa. the others to the zone ub. The faces are penetrated 

 by many fine irregular clefts. Besides fissures caused in penetration, inclusions are present only in email quantities 

 and consist of opaque grains and rarely of black needles. The plagioclase is generally united with the small enstatite 

 grains. I have not observed a regular outline. The borders are rounded or irregular. In polarized light may occa- 

 sionally be seen a very marked twinning structure, caused either by broad lamellae in different positions or by a num- 

 ber of small lamellae collected together so that they seem like fine lines. The rest of the grains have a simple and quite 

 undulatory extinction, but many are composed of many small grains. The determination of the plagioclase rests upon 

 its appearance in polarized light. Attempts to separate single grains for further testing failed on account of their 

 minuteness and because they could not be distinguished either by color or luster from enstatite. The plagioclase shows 

 6treaks and delicate turbidity occasionally, and often in transmitted light appears brownish. Small opaque inclusions 

 are rare, but large spindle-formed bronzite inclusions are not infrequent. The troilite forms large and small grains 

 which are surrounded by a border due to reflection of light. Rammelsberg's analysis agrees with the microscopic 

 appearance, since he found the constituents of enstatite, alumina, lime, and alkalies. Rose mentions also a small 

 quantity of nickel-iron and a black mineral filling little clefts. On breaking I found in such clefts shining armor faces 

 similar to those which in later-found meteorites consist of iron, troilite, and fused silicates. 



The meteorite is distributed. The U. S. National Museum-Shepard collection possesses 

 1,090 grams; the British Museum, 512 grams; Tubingen, 510 grams. About 6 pounds of 

 the stone are unaccounted for. 



BIBLIOGRAPHY. 



1. 1846: Shepard. Report on meteorites. Amer. Journ. Sci., 2d ser., vol. 2, 1846, pp. 379, 384, and 392. 



2. 1848: Shepard. Amer. Journ. Sci., 2d ser., vol. 6, 1848, pp. 411-414. 



3. 1851: von Waltershausen. Ueber einen Meteorstein von Bishopville in Sud-Carolina. Ann. Chem. Pharm., 



Bd. 79, 1851, pp. 369-374 (analysis). 



4. 1855: Smith. Memoir on meteorites. Amer. Journ. Sci., 2d ser., vol. 19, 1855, pp. 162-163. 



5. 1861: Rammelsbebg. TJeber einige nordamerikanische Meteoriten. Monatsber. Berlin. Akad., 1861, pp. 895-899. 



6. 1863: Rose. Meteoriten, 1863, pp. 27, 28, 117-122, and 156. 



7. 1864: Smith. Chladnite of the Bishopville meteoric stone proved to be a magnesian pyroxene. Amer. Journ. 



Sci., 2d ser., vol. 38, 1864, pp. 225-226. Also Idem, 3d ser., vol. 5, pp. 108-110. 



8. 1857-65: von Reichenbach. No. 5, pp. 476 and 477; and No. 13, pp. 359-360, 364, and 375. 



9. 1870: Rammelsberg. Meteoriten, 1870, pp. 121-123. 



10. 1870: Maskelyne. On the mineral constituents of meteorites. Philos. Trans., vol. 1, 1870, pp. 194 and 195. 



11. 1883: Wadsworth. The Bishopville and Waterville meteorites. I: The Bishopville meteorite. Amer. Journ. 



Sci., 3d ser., vol. 26, 1883, pp. 32-36 and 248. 



12. 1883: Tschermak. Beitrag Sitzber. Wien. Akad., Bd. 88, 1883, I, pp. 363-365 and 367. 



13. 1884: Meunier. Meteorites, 1884, pp. 62, 73, 74, 80, 93, 94, 95, 96, 98, 278-280, and 523. 



14. 1883-1885: Tschermak. Photographien, pi. V, and pp. 9, 10. 



BLACK MOUNTAIN. 



Buncombe County, North Carolina. 



Here also Asheville, 1835; and Buncombe County, 1835. 



Latitude 35° 44' N., longitude 82° 2C W. 



Iron. Coarse octahedrite (Og) of Brezina. 



Found about 1839; described 1847. 



Weight, 596 grams (21 ozs.). 



This meteorite was first described by Shepard ' as follows: 



My first knowledge of this iron was derived from a remark, contained in a letter from Hon. T. J. Clingman, dated 

 February 17, 1846, to the following effect: " Doctor Hardy informs me that he gave a very remarkable looking specimen 

 of meteoric iron found in this county (Buncombe) to the late Colonel Nicholson, of Charleston, South Carolina, who 

 died at Abbeville in that state, 6 or 7 years ago." Being in Charleston, I applied to the executors of the estate of 



