390 MEMOIRS NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES, VOL. XIII. 



The kamacite is much broken up into grains by meandering, fine crevices and appears at the same time to be striped 

 and flecked, causing a peculiar fibrous appearance and dull silken sheen. The stripes are not due to hatching, as was 

 formerly supposed, since under a very strong magnifying power numerous black, pointlike inclusions become visible, 

 and their irregular distribution causes the flecked and striped appearance. Only a few tiny fields, scarcely visible to 

 the naked eye, consist of compact, dull dark plessite. The rest are composed of bands 0.05 to 0.2 mm. thick of varying 

 and irregular form which, under the microscope, resemble the principal lamella?. Those under consideration are 

 distinguished from similar areas in other meteoric irons by the fact that the bands are in immediate contact with one 

 another and no trace of taenite seams or inclosed compact plessite is discernible. In rare instances the teenite sends 

 forth from the extreme edge thorny processes into the area, or there appear in the interior a few isolated, glistening 

 scales which may be taken for tamite or schreibersite. Schreibersite occurs sparingly in rounded crystals enveloped 

 in kamacite, then comes troilite in isolated grains up to 1 cm. in size, and iron-glass in small dark specks. 



Russel Gulch is characterized by a marked and manifold bending of most of the lamellae, a dull, silken luster, and 

 the almost identical appearance of the bands and fields. An etched surface, therefore, has an unusually peculiar 

 appearance and very distinctly marked, as in the case of La Grange. 



Analysis by 0. Burger: 



Fe Ni Co Cu Cr S P 



92.34 7.43 0.66 0.04 0.01 trace 0.13 =100.61 



The meteorite is distributed, but the largest quantity (11.25 pounds) is in the possession 

 of the American Museum of Natural History. 6 



BIBLIOGRAPHY. 



1. 1866: Smith. A new meteoric iron, "the Colorado meteorite," from Russel Gulch, near Central City, Colorado 



Territory. Amer. Journ. Sci., 2d ser., vol. 42, pp. 218-219. (Analysis.) 



2. 1885: Brezina. Wiener Sammlung, pp. 208-209. 



3. 1887: Brezina and Cohen. Photographien, plate 21. 



4. 1893: Meunier. Revision des fers m6teoriques, pp. 52 and 57. 



5. 1905: Cohen. Meteoritenkunde, Heft 3, pp. 360-362. 



6. 1906: American Museum Journal, vol. 6, p. 125. 



Rutherford County, 1847. See Murfreesboro. 

 Rutherford County, 1880. See Colfax. 



SACRAMENTO MOUNTAINS. 



Eddy County, New Mexico. 



Here also Badger. 



Latitude 32° 55' N., longitude 104° 40' W. 



Iron. Medium octahedrite (Om) of Brezina. 



Found 1896. 



Weight, 237 kgs. (523 lbs.). 



This meteorite was described by Foote ' as follows : 



On nearing Fort Stanton, Arizona Territory, while on a westward journey in 1876, Mr. M. Bartlett of Florence, Ari- 

 zona Territory, saw a meteor pass through the heavens in a southerly direction and fall, with a report like that of a 

 cannon, on the east side of the Sacramento Mountains. 



The above account was given by Mr. Bartlett to Mr. C. R. Biederman, and to the latter gentleman is due the credit 

 of securing the specimen to science and furnishing the historical data here given. 



Continued inquiry in the Pecos country was fruitless until by chance a small sample of native iron was presented 

 to Mr. Biederman, for assay, and proving to be meteoric, led to the locating of the mass through the first finder, a 

 shepherd, named Beckett. 



The latter, in a sworn statement, says that he found it while herding in the lower foothills of the Sacramento 

 Mountains, Eddy County, New Mexico, about 23 miles southwest of a place called Badger. It rested on top of a lime- 

 stone hill, where it had made a depression, and was partly buried. He could find no other pieces. Mr. Biederman, 

 heading a search party, found the mass at the place indicated, and with much labor dragged it 6 miles over the desert 

 to a wagon road. A long search was made by the party, but nothing else could be found. It is complete, save for about 

 500 grams of fragments, broken off by Beckett, and a piece of 1,500 grams sawed off after it came into the possession of 

 the firm of Dr. A. E. Foote. Its appearance indicates that no rupture occurred through an explosion during its flight 

 nor by the force of the fall. The small fragments mentioned were employed in analysis and the making of a knife. 



