METEORITES OF NORTH AMERICA. 303 



mercury in the cyanide of mercury. But having every arrangement necessary for executing successfully the method 

 by the nitrate of potash, I have not yet tried Professor Gibbs' modification, but shall do so shortly. 



Chrome iron. — This is found in small quantity in minute particles, some of them showing distinct faces of crystals; 

 but I failed to find any complete octahedron. The quantity was too small for analysis, but was readily recognized 

 by the blowpipe. 



Sulphuret of iron. — This also is discernible only in minute quantity, and could not be collected for analysis. I 

 would remark, with reference to the sulphuret of iron found in meteorites, that it can not be classed with the terres- 

 trial magnetic pyrites, whose formula is considered Fe 7 S8, having always found the sulphur too small for this formula; 

 in which conclusion I believe I am sustained by Rammelberg and others. My results point to the formula FeS; and 

 if the composition of these two kinds of pyrites be correctly made out, then the meteoric variety has no terrestrial 

 representative. 



Hornblende. — This mineral is easily separated, and is of a greenish-gray color, more or less soiled by iron. With 

 some care it can be detached unmixed with other constituents. It has a very distinct cleavage in one direction and 

 an imperfect one in another. On analysis it gave: 



Silica 52. 10 



Alumina 1. 02 



Protoxide of iron 16. 49 



Protoxide of manganese 1. 25 



Magnesia 29. 81 



Alkalies (potash, soda, lithia) 24 



100. 91 



The oxygen relations of the silica and protoxides furnish the formula R 4 Si 3 — the formula of hornblende. In struc- 

 ture and composition it is not unlike varieties of anthophyllite. 



Olivine. — This mineral is diffused through the mass. Some of the smaller pieces are almost colorless; others again 

 are more or less yellow, being stained with oxide of iron. Some of the fragments are iridescent, like varieties of oligo- 

 clase, which I at first took it to be. Sufficient of it was detached in a pure state for analysis, and was found to be com- 

 posed as follows: 



Silica 42. 02 



Alumina 4G 



Protoxide of iron 12. 08 



Magnesia 47. 25 



100. 81 



There was a minute quantity of the manganese estimated with the oxide of iron and magnesia. This analysis 

 overruns the 100. This is accounted for in part by the quantity used for analysis not being more than 0.160 grams. 

 The oxygen ratio of the silica and protoxides show the composition R 3 Si, which is that of olivine. 



Carbonate of lime. — The observation of this constituent in a meteorite is something entirely new, yet it is found 

 on the exterior surface of the meteorite in question, in various places. There is no doubt in my mind, however, that 

 this ingredient was no part of the mass when it fell, but that it has been exposed to certain conditions since its fall 

 by which carbonate of lime has been incrusted on its surface. 



It is much to be regretted that the entire original mass is not accessible to furnish facilities for determining whether 

 it is an incrustation or not, and if the former, whether the incrustation was formed prior to or subsequent to the fall. 



In relation to the presence of carbonates in meteorites, we have first the and only announcement up to the present 

 time, in connection with the meteorites which fell at Orgueil in 1863. Messrs. DesCloizeau, Pisani, Daubree, and 

 Cloez discovered minute rhombohedral crystals of double carbonates of magnesia and iron. 



Wadsworth 5 described the two meteorites separately. Forsyth, Taney County, Missouri, 



he classed as a pallasite, 



composed of a white, sponge-like mass of nickeliferous iron containing greenish olivine, the latter being more abundant 

 than the former. Specific gravity, 4.46. 



Newton County, Arkansas, he described as 



a coarsely reticulated or sponge-like mass of iron, containing in its cells olivine and enstatite(?) . Chromite and pyrrhotite 

 also occur. The enstatite is of a greenish-gray color and more or less stained by the iron. The olivine is in part colorless 

 and in part stained yellow by the oxide of iron. The analysis does not afford data from which to give the composition of 

 the rock as a whole. The specimens seen indicate that it is closely allied to the peridotites, but probably belongs with 

 the pallasites with which it is here placed. 



The discovery of the exact locality of the meteorite and the correlation of the different 

 accounts was due to Kunz. 7 His account is in part as follows: 



During June, 1887, a meteoric mass came into my possession, and through the kindness of Miss Hattie Payne, of 

 Lamar, Arkansas, I learned that it was taken about thirty years before from a spot in latitude 36° 35' N. and longitude 



