METEORITES OF NORTH AMERICA. . 119 



2. 1834: Burkart. Geognostische Bemerknngen auf einer Reise zwischen Ramos und Catorce. Neues Jahrb., 



1834, pp. 589-590, out of Karsten's Arch. f. Min. Bd. VI, p. 422 ff. 



3. 1856: Burkart. Fundorte I. Neues Jahrb., 1856, pp. 283, 284, 285, 286-288 (illustration on Plate IV), 290, 291, 



and 292. 



4. 1867: Daubree. Note sur deux grosses masses de fer m£t£orique du Museum et particulierement sur celle de 



Charcas (Mexique), r£cemment parvenue a Paris. Comptes Rendus, Tome 64, pp. 633 and 636-640. 



5. 1873: Meunier. Produit d'oxydation des fersm6t6oriques; comparaison avec les magnetites terrestres. Comptes 



Rendus, Tome 77, p. 645. 



6. 1884: Meunier. Metrites, pp. 21, 23, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44 (illustration), 46, 47, 60, 61, 116, and 117-118. 



7. 1885: Brezina. Wiener Sammlung, pp. 213 and 234. 



8. 1890: Fletcher. Mexican Meteorites. Mineral. Mag., vol. 9, pp. 99, 160-162, and 174. 



9. 1893: Meunier. Revision des fers me'teoriques, pp. 52 and 54.-, 



10. 1895: Brezina. Wiener Sammlung, p. 275. 



11. 1895: Cohen. Meteoreisen-Studien IV. Ann. K. K. Naturhist. Hofmus. Wien, Bd. 10, pp. 82 and 83. 



Charles County. See Nanjemoy. 



CHARLOTTE. 



Dickson County, Tennessee. 



Latitude 36° 12' N., longitude 87° 22' W. 



Iron. Fine octahedrite (Of) of Brezina; Dicksonite (type 12) of Meunier. 



Fell between 2 and 3 p. m., July 31 or August 1, 1835; described 1845. 



Weight, 4^.5 kgs. (9-10 lbs.). 



This iron was first described by Troost ' ten years after its fall as follows: 



A member of the legislature of the State of Tennessee from Charlotte, county seat of Dickson (I do not remember 

 his name), having seen my description of the Cocke County meteoric iron, mentioned to me some years ago that a curious 

 mass of some metal was in the possession of one of his constituents, which he thought might be of the same nature as 

 that of Cocke County. He was not able to give me any other information, but becoming acquainted since with the 

 Hon. J. Voorhies, senator of Dickson County, I learned from him that such a mass really existed, that he knew the 

 person in whose possession it was, etc. Having thus learned that I desired to obtain it my friend, the senator, did not 

 rest till he had secured the specimen and put me in possession of it and its history. 



I learned then the following facts from Senator Voorhies, and these facts have since been confirmed by other persons. 

 In answer to a letter which I wrote about this iron to the senator, he answered: "I have collected all the facts in con- 

 nection with the history of the meteoric mass which I sent you last year, but I have not been able to add much to those 

 that I have already communicated. There is no doubt that this mass fell from heaven upon the earth, where it shortly 

 after was found, though the precise date can not be recollected. I was told that a noise was heard in the air, which 

 was preceded by a vivid light. This happened while several persons were laboring in their fields. A man who lives 

 at present in this vicinity was plowing at the time when this took place; his horse took fright and ran around the 

 field dragging the plow behind him; he recollected this circumstance very well, and it enables him to fix the date 

 upon which the fall took place. He believes it was in 1835 on the last day of July or the first of August between 2 and 

 3 o'clock in the afternoon, the sky being cloudless. It fell before the last plowing in a cotton field opposite his 

 dwelling. The iron was found when the field was plowed for the last time that season. Its fall was not vertical but 

 much inclined and it traveled with great rapidity from west toward the east, as was evident from the furrow that had 

 been made in the ground. The original shape of the mass was that of a kidney. Its smaller extremity was cut off by a 

 blacksmith who yet lives in this vicinity. When it was first taken out of the ground it had the appearance as if it had 

 been heated." 



According to this letter and the information which I collected at the place itself where it fell — the Dickson iron 

 fell, as already stated, on the last of July or the first of August, between 2 and 3 o'clock p. m. It has the form of a 

 drop or rather of a depressed tear, one side is partly flat and partly concave, while the other side is convex — the form 

 a drop of viscid matter would assume if it fell upon a hard floor. The surface has the appearance of smooth cast iron. 

 It is surrounded by a zone or girdle of a metal of a whiter color and of a more compact texture possessing a more or less 

 bright polish, which seems to have been produced by a more fluid part of the metal, squeezed through the pores of the 

 already solid iron, by pressure probably occasioned by the fall, which, spreading itself as a thin cover over the surface, 

 formed the zone or girdle mentioned above. 



As mentioned above, the surface of the mass (when viewed with the naked eye) has the appearance of smooth 

 cast iron; but the irregularity of this surface disappears when it is examined through a powerful magnifying glass. 

 The whole becomes then a reticulated plane, formed by the edges of thin lamellae of metal, separated from each other 

 by an apparently semifused or Blaggy matter. These lamellae, running in an inclined position into the mass, inter- 

 sect one another at angles of 60°, and consequently form equilateral triangles which divide the mass into regular 

 octahedrons. 



Its present weight is 7 pounds, 13 ounces. I presume the original weight, judging from the size of the piece cut 

 off before it came in my possession, must have been between 9 and 10 pounds. 



