METEORITES OF NORTH AMERICA. 271 



Lincoln County. See Petersburg. 

 Linn County. See Marion. 



LINVILLE.a 



Linville Mountain, Burke County, North Carolina. 



Latitude 35° 48' N., longitude 81° 55' W. 



Iron. Nickel-rich ataxite, Morradal group of Cohen. 



Found about 1S82; described 1888. 



Weight, 442 grams (15.5 ounces). 



This meteorite was described by Kunz, 1 as follows: 



A mass of meteoric iron was found on Linville Mountain, Burke County, North Carolina, about the year 1882. It 

 was handed to a country blacksmith in the vicinity, who sold it to a tourist miner, and finally it came into my 

 possession . 



The meteorite weighed 428 grams; the original weight being 442 grams (15.5 ounces), the balance having been 

 used for analysis and for etching, and measured 65 by 35 by 38 mm. One side is rather rough and the other is pitted 

 with very shallow pittings. Traces of a black crust of magnetic oxide of iron are still visible, and although the mass 

 is not rusted, yet small drops of chloride of iron have collected in the deep clefts, and in one of them was found a 

 spider's egg case, suggesting either that the iron is a recent fall or had been found on the surface of the ground. 



In cutting a piece from the lower side, the blacksmith destroyed considerable of the surface as well as the crust, 

 on account of the toughness of the iron. The iron admits of a high polish, yielding a rich nickel color, which, under 

 the glass and by reflected light, shows an apparent network of two distinct bodies. On etching, the surface of the iron 

 merely blackens and does not show the Widmannstatten figures. If this black deposit is washed off, an orientated 

 6heen appears. Almost the entire surface has, under the glass, the appearance of a meshwork of which the irregularly 

 rounded centers have been eaten out. At a few places on both sides of a crack is a small piece of troilite 3 by 1.5 mm., 

 through which are scattered small patches of meteoric iron that after etching exhibit beautiful octahedral markings so 

 delicate as to be invisible to the naked eye, and somewhat like those of the Tazewell meteorite, though not more than 

 one-tenth the thickness. « 



Analysis by J. E. Whitfield: 



Fe Ni Co S C P 



84. 56 14. 95 0. 33 0. 12 trace trace =99. 96 



Brezina, in 1895, 2 placed the meteorite in the Chesterville group and described it as follows: 



The etched section surface shows a peculiar constitution, which on the one hand resembles the iron of Victoria 

 West, by reason of its extraordinary richness in schreibersite granules, flakes, and lumps; and on the other hand, 

 resembles that of Shingle Springs, on account of the irregular stratification. While the principal part consists of a 

 very intimate and uniform mingling of schreibersite granules with a darker, structureless groundmass, larger schrei- 

 bersite individuals are found in connection with hollow places, which consist of dark iron with a thin coating of 

 schreibersite and are broken by small lamina? which likewise are made of dark iron with a coating of schreibersite. 

 The placing of this iron in the Chesterville group is by no means perfectly certain, although most of the analogies speak 

 for this assumption. 



Cohen 3 described the iron as follows : 



A piece of the Linville meteorite weighing about 200 grams, with a section surface of 18.5 sq. cm., representing 

 nearly one-half of the entire fall, was at hand for examination. The outer surface consists of a fusion crust of varying 

 thickness, which is worn off where it is particularly thin. In one place a cleftlike depression extends from the sur- 

 face toward the interior to a depth of 2$ cm. On other portions of the surface there are deep, very irregularly formed 

 cavities which show no similarity whatever to the usual saucerlike depressions or finger marks; the one cavity ends 

 with a canal 1 cm. long and 1 mm. wide, in the interior of the piece. The formation of these hollows may be occa- 

 sioned by the melting out of schreibersite; since isolated holes occur upon the section surface which show, by their 

 form or the remaining of the material, that they were originally filled with schreibersite. The larger individuals 

 remaining of the latter attain a length of 10 and a width of 1.5 mm.; it occurs also in tiny spangles and rhabditelike 

 needles. Iron sulphide is not noticeable; what Kunz described as troilite may be yellowish, tarnished schreibersite. 



The principal part of the nickel-iron takes on by etching a similar, although weaker, varnishlike gloss, like that 

 so characteristic of Morradal and Smithville. The structure appears to the unaided eye exceptionally uniform and 

 fine grained. Nevertheless, even under a strong glass one can distinguish distinctly raised, strongly reflecting por- 

 tions and dark dull depressions; the etched surface appears as if covered with tiny, densely packed, uniformly dis- 

 tributed pinholes. With a higher power of the microscope, it appears that the glossy particles form a meandering 

 vein structure of the finest possible texture, the threads of which have a width of 0.02 to 0.04 mm., and that the sunken 

 portions sometimes possess a roundish to cylindrical form, sometimes an elongated vermiform character, both having 



<■ Tho spelling LinnvQle was given by Kunz and has been followed by other authors, but charts of the region give Linville. 



