METEORITES OF NORTH AMERICA. 245 



finer points -which I regard likewise as etching pits; the etching lines do not appear to increase. The distinct but not 

 very lively oriented luster increases in intensity by streaks and the stripes are twisted, owing to a distortion of the 

 structure in the forcible removal of the piece. Of accessory minerals there are only a few rods and grains of schreibersite 

 to be mentioned. 



BIBLIOGRAPHY. 



1. 1899: Foote. Amer. Journ. Sci., 3d ser., vol. 8, pp. 415-416. 



2. 1905: Cohen. Meteoritenkunde, Heft 3, pp. 225-226. 



IRON CREEK. 



Province of Alberta, Canada. 



Here also Battle River, Saskatchewan River, and Victoria. 



Latitude 52° N., longitude 112° W. 



Iron. Medium octahedrite (Om) of Brezina. 



Described 1872. 



Weight, 175 kgs. (386 lbs). 



The first published mention of this meteorite seems to have been by Butler ' whose account 

 of it is thus reported by Flight : 3 



In 1870 Captain Butler received orders from Lieut. Gov. Archibald, of Manitoba, to proceed on a mission to the 

 Saskatchewan. While returning from the far west he passed, on December 25, 1871, through the village of Victoria, 

 which lies on the north branch of the river about midway between Fort Edmonton and Fort Pitt, and was shown in the 

 farmyard of the mission house of that station a curious block of metal of immense weight. It was rugged, deeply 

 indented, and polished on the edges by wear and friction. Longer than any man could say, it had lain on the 

 summit of a hill out on the southern prairies. It had been a medicine stone of surpassing virtue among the Indians 

 far and wide, and no tribe or member of a tribe would pass in the neighborhood without visiting this great medicine. 

 It was said to be increasing yearly in weight. Old men remember to have heard old men say that they had at one time 

 lifted it easily from the ground ; now no single man can carry it. Not very long before Captain Butler saw this meteorite 

 it had been removed from the hill upon which it had so long rested and been brought to Victoria. When the Indians 

 found that it had been taken away they were loud in the expression of their regret. The old medicine men declared 

 that its removal would bring great misfortune, and that war, disease, and dearth of buffalo would afflict the tribes of 

 the Saskatchewan. This was not a prophecy made after the outbreak of smallpox which was devastating the dis- 

 trict when Captain Butler was there, for in a magazine published by the Wesleyan Society of Canada, there appears 

 a letter from the missionary announcing the predictions of the medicine men a year before Captain Butler's visit, and 

 concluding with an expression of thankfulness that their dismal prognostications had not been realized. A few 

 months later, however, brought on all three evils upon the Indians. Never, probably, since the first trader had trav- 

 ersed their land, had so many afflictions of war, famine, and plague fallen upon the Crees and the Blackfeet as during 

 the year succeeding the removal of their Manitou stone from the lone hill top upon which the skies had cast it. 



Coleman 2 states that the meteorite was brought in (presumably to Victoria) in 1870 by 

 Red River cart by Daniel McDougall at the instance of his father, Rev. Geo. McDougall. 

 Coleman 2 further states: 



It was found on a hill near Iron Creek, a tributary of Battle River, at a point about 150 miles south of Victoria, 

 on the North Saskatchewan. 



This meteorite was greatly venerated by the Indians, who made offerings to it of beads, trinkets, or knives before 

 setting out on hunting or warlike expeditions. They saw in the markings on its surface the rough features of a face, 

 believed that the "stone " attracted lightning, and that it had grown in size and weight since they first saw it. 



In outline it is irregularly triangular and much broader than it is thick. Its surface shows the usual rounded 

 and pitted appearance. It consists of solid metal, with scarcely a trace of stony matter and only a slight oxidation of 

 the surface. Specific gravity: 7.784. 



Analysis (Coleman): 



Fe Ni Co 



91.33 8.83 0.49 =100.65 



Brezina * described the structure as follows : 



Victoria has a very regular zone of alteration 3 mm. broad, even under the 0.5 to 1 mm. thick crust of the rear side. 

 The lamellae are long, straight, partially grouped, not swollen; the kamacite finely hatched and spotted. Tsenite 

 well developed. Fields abundant, resembling the kamacite, but with finer structure or with taenite spots instead of 

 combs. 



Farrington 5 described the form of the meteorite as follows : 

 A cast of this meteorite recently received by the Field Museum, through the kindness of the Geological Survey 

 of Canada, affords an opportunity for the study of some features which have not previously received description. The 

 meteorite is remarkable for its orientation, the characters of front and rear sides being shown very plainly. In per- 

 fection of form in this respect it equals the Cabin Creek meteorite, which in general shape it resembles. In previous 

 descriptions of this meteorite it has merely been stated that the mass was "irregularly triangular and much broader 

 than thick," and no dimensions have been given. 



