METEORITES OF NORTH AMERICA. 89 



CABIN CREEK. 



Johnson County, Arkansas. 



Here also Johnson County. 



Latitude 35° 24 ' N., longitude 93° 22' W. 



Iron. Medium octahedrite (Om) of Brezina. 



Fell 3.17 p. m., March 27, 1886; described 1887. 



Weight, 47.4 kg. (107 lbs). 



This meteorite was first described by Kunz ' as follows : 



This mass fell about 6 miles east of Cabin Creek, Johnson County, Arkansas, in longitude 93° 17' W., latitude 35° 

 24' N., within 75 yards of the house of Christopher C. Shandy. Mrs. Shandy states that about 3 o'clock (3.17 p. m., 

 exactly) on the afternoon of March 27, 1886, while in her house she heard a very loud report, which caused the 

 dishes in the closet to rattle and which she described as louder than any thunder she had ever heard. At first she 

 thought it was caused by a bombshell, and ran out of the house in time to see the limbs fall from the top of a tall pine 

 tree, which she says stands about 75 yards from her dwelling. She did not investigate the matter until her husband 

 came home about 6 o'clock in the evening, when in company with John R. Norton, their hired man, they went out 

 to find the cause of the noise that had so startled Mrs. Shandy. They discovered that a large hole had been made in 

 the ground by some falling body, and that the fresh dirt had been thrown up to a height of 30 feet on the surrounding 

 saplings and trees. They dug down, and a steam or exhalation arose, which on a dark night might perhaps have pro- 

 duced a phosphorescence similar to that described in the case of the Mazapil iron. The iron had buried itself in the 

 ground to the depth of 3 feet, and the earth around it for the thickness of 1 inch seemed to be burned. 



The ground was still warm when the iron was taken out, and the iron itself was as hot as the men could well handle. 

 The weather had been quite cloudy all day but no rain fell until night. These facts are from the affidavits of Mr. and 

 Mrs. Shandy and John R. Norton. Mr. Shandy at first supposed that their find was platinum, then silver, and finally 

 learning what it was he sold it. Mrs. India Ford, Dr. W. J. Bleck, Mr. S. A. Wright, constable, and Mr. L. Wright, 

 chief of police, also heard the report caused by the fall. 



The noise was heard 75 miles away and was likened to a loud report followed by a hissing sound as if hot metal 

 had come in contact with water. It caused a general alarm among the people and teams of horses 25 miles distant, 

 becoming frightened, broke loose and ran away; and in Webb City, Franklin County, on the south side of the Arkansas 

 River, a number of bells, kept on sale in a store, are said to have been caused to tinkle. Cabin Creek is on the north 

 side of the Arkansas River. 



Mr. B. Caraway states that he heard two loud reports at Alma, Crawford County, at 3 o'clock on March 27, 1886. 

 The report was also heard at Russellville and in the adjoining county of Pope. The Democrat of that place, says, 

 April 29, 1886: "The wonderful meteoric stone as it is called, but erroneously, for nothing could be further from stone 

 than it is, is now on exhibition here. The noise it made when it struck the earth's atmosphere on the 27th of March 

 and came whizzing to earth near Knoxville, will never be forgotten, neither will anyone who looked at it ever forget 

 it." The Dardanelle Post of April 1, refers to the explosion, and the issue of April 8 suggests the meteorite found 

 as its probable cause. Mr. B. Caraway, who visited the spot, states that the pine through which the meteorite fell is 107 

 feet high, and that the distance from the foot of the tree to the center of the hole made by the mass is 22 feet 3 inches. 

 The limbs on the west side of the tree were broken and the meteorite lay in the hole with the flat side down. The 

 hole was 75 yards from the house. 



Prof. H. A. Newton states that the data furnished indicate that the mass must have fallen nearly from the zenith. 

 This was the direction of the end of its path, the earlier portion being more inclined to the vertical, as the path must 

 be affected by gravity and the resistance of the air. The earlier direction must have been from the northeast and more 

 nearly from the east than from the north. 



After passing through several hands, it was exhibited for profit as "the tenth wonder," although the exhibitors 

 were not aware of the fact that this was (probably) the actual tenth iron which has been seen to fall. 



The mass is in general quite flat and very irregular, resembling strongly a mass of molten metal thrown on the ground 

 and then pitted. The illustration of the Agram mass figured by Von Schreibers could be mistaken for the upper side 

 of this were it not that this is larger. It measures 17.5 by 15.5 inches. A ridge 5 inches high at one point runs through 

 the center. One-half of the mass is not over 3 inches thick, part of it is only 2 inches, and around the edge it is only 1 

 inch or less. It is only exceeded in size among the irons seen to fall by the Nejed, central Arabia, which fell in the 

 spring of 1865 and weighs 59.42 kg. The weight of the Cabin Creek iron is 107.5 pounds (44.213 kg.) and it is intact with 

 exception of three small points, weighing not more than 2 ounces in all, which were broken off. 



The two sides are wholly dissimilar. The upper side is ridged and deeply dented, while the lower side is flat and 

 covered with shallow, but very large, pittings. On top the color is in many places, almost tin white without any 

 coating whatever, and the pittings are very deep and usually quite long, like finger depressions made in potter's clay. 

 These depressions measure from 2 to 4 cm. and from 1 to 4 cm. This side is remarkable for striae showing the flow and 

 fusion and all running from the center toward the edge, identical with those of the Rowton, Nedagolla, and Mazapil 

 irons, but on a larger scale. Some of them are thinner than a hair and yet twice as high (like a high knife edge), and 

 they are from 1 to 4 inches long. In one space of 5 cm. 20 are arranged side by side, and on one small part which 

 is black, there are 50 lines in 1 inch of space (25 mm.) all running in the same direction. Near all the pointed edges 



