78 MEMOIRS NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES, VOL. XIII. 



Thus both in structure and chemical composition, Botetourt resembles Babb's Mill, as 

 Shepard also remarked; it belongs, therefore, to the group of ataxites rich in nickel, and indeed, 

 so far as can be judged from so small a fragment, to that division which shows neither etching 

 patches nor etching bands. 



Besides the small fragments in the Vienna collection, Calcutta and Amherst report splinters 

 of Botetourt. In view of the little that is known of the meteorite and the uncertainty with 

 which it is surrounded it is omitted from most lists, and on the whole it is certainly unsatis- 

 factory. 



BIBLIOGRAPHY. 



1. 1866: Shepabd. Brief Notices of several localities of Meteoric Iron. Virginia. Amer. Journ. Sci., 2d ser., vol. 42, 



p. 250. 



2. 1869: Buchnek. Vierter Nachtrag. Ann. Phys. und Chem., Poggendorff, Bd. 136, p. 603. 



3. 18S5: Brezina. Wiener Sammlung, pp. 221, 234. 



4. 1897: Wulfing. Die Meteoriten in Sammlungen, p. 397. 



5. 1898: Cohen. Ann. K. K. Naturhist. Hofmus. Wien, Bd. 13, pp. 47-49. 



6. 1905: Cohen. Meteoritenkunde, Heft 3, pp. 114-116. 



Brazos River. See Wichita County. 

 Brazos, 1808. See Red River. 



BRENHAM. 



Brenham Township, Kiowa County, Kansas. 



Here also Haviland Township and Kiowa County. 



Latitude 37° 38' N., longitude 99° 5' W. 



Iron-stone, Pallasite (Pk) Krasnoyarsk group of Brezina. 



Found 1885 or 1886; described 1890. 



Weight, over 900 kgs. (2,000 lbs.). 



The first description of these meteorites was given by Kunz ' as follows : 



This interesting group of meteorites, numbering over 20 in all, weighing together about 2,000 pounds, and 

 individually from 406 pounds down to 1 ounce, was found by farmers in Brenham Township, Kiowa County, Kansas, 

 in the year 1885 or 1886. They were embedded to a slight depth in the soil, which here for about 100 feet deep is formed 

 of Pleistocene marl, originally the bottom of an ancient lake; they occurred scattered over a surface more than a mile 

 in length, principally, however, in a square of about 60 acres. On the high prairie not a stone of any kind is to be 

 found; hence the ranch men and settlers were greatly surprised at finding heavy "rocks" or stones projecting through 

 the prairie sod. The masses were nearly all found by being struck by mowing machines, ploughshares, corn culti- 

 vators, or other farm implements. For several years after they had been identified as meteorites they were used as 

 weights to hold down haystacks, barrel covers, etc., until Mrs. Kimberly applied to Professor Cragin, of Washburne 

 University. Professor Snow, of Lawrence, Kansas, visited Kiowa County several times, and the last time obtained 

 the 101.5-pound mass in the streets of Greensburg, the county seat, where it had lain for several years in front of a 

 lawyer's real estate office. 



The exterior of all the masses shows the characteristic pitting. The surfaces have all been more or less oxidized 

 by exposure to the elements, showing that the fall is not recent, and that the original mass was composed of crystalline 

 iron as well as of iron filled with crystals of olivine; in other words, the masses show two distinct groups. Of these 

 the 345-pound and the 75-pound masses are nickeliferous iron of highly octahedral structure and cleavage, and are 

 medium octahedrites, while the others are meteoric iron containing olivine, and belong to the group known as pallasites. 



The largest mass, a pallasite, weighed 466 pounds (211.818 kg.). It was thick, slightly flattened, triangular in 

 form, somewhat heart shaped, and measured through the longest part, 61 cm. ; across the widest part, 48 cm., and in the 

 thickest part, 37 cm. It was covered with large indentations measuring 10 by 6 by 3 cm. The coating was more or 

 less oxidized, but the olivine was more or less perceptible in all parts of the mass. The dimensions of the 345-pound 

 mass were 60 by 37 by 29 cm. and it was slightly arched shaped. It was composed of iron with many pittings and 

 showed the characteristic magnetic oxide of iron rust. The 219-pound mass measured 15 by 41 by 26 cm., and was 

 shaped like a three-sided pyramid. The 211-pound mass was somewhat rounded, with a circular depression on one side. 

 There were two masses weighing 125 pounds and 54.96 pounds, respectively. The 101.5-pound mass was almost round, 

 measuring 35 by 26 by 27 cm. The exterior was evenly pitted, the center of each pitting being occupied by an olivine 

 crystal. The 75-pound mass was an iron, and measured 32 by 22.5 by 15 cm., and was shaped like a pear or ham, and 

 was covered with pittings. The crust had been changed somewhat by weathering. The 71.5-pound mass measured 



