METEORITES OF NORTH AMERICA. 395 



Whether it was noticed by others in the region has not been positively ascertained as yet, but as the territory is 

 sparsely populated it may be that no other observer will be found. 



Mr. Sutton, being a surveyor by profession, at once began to form as accurate estimates as possible of the speed, 

 direction of motion, etc., of the mass, in order to enable him to discover where it would be likely to strike the earth. 

 The speed he estimated at 1 mile per second, the angle with the horizon as 25° and that with the meridian as 20° west 

 of north. These estimates led him to conclude that the point of fall would be about 4 miles from his home, but all 

 subsequent searching in that region proved futile. At the end of nearly three years, however, he made a recalculation in 

 which he assigned a greater speed to the meteorite than he had before done. This indicated that the point of fall might 

 have been about 8 miles away. Seeking in this locality his efforts were rewarded in the fall of 1901 by finding the 

 meteorite in the bank of a "draw." It had penetrated the soil to an underlying limestone stratum on which it lay. 

 The thickness of soil at the time of excavation was considerable, but this might have undergone considerable change 

 since the fall of the meteorite. Great credit is certainly due Mr. Sutton for the skill and persistence with which he 

 followed up his observations.- 



The mass as received at the museum has the form of an irregular, somewhat tabular polyhedron bounded by eight 

 approximately plane surfaces. Its weight is 68 pounds 10 ounces. It is covered, except where a few small fragments 

 have been broken off, with a thick black crust contrasting in color to the dark-gray hue of the interior. The crust is 

 stippled with protruding metallic grains, for the most part coated with a black oxide of iron, but occasionally showing 

 bright, and nickel white in color. One of these protruding grains reaches a diameter of 5 mm., the others are smaller. 

 Cracks through the crust give the meteorite a "baked" appearance. There are numerous characteristic pittings, for 

 the most part oval in shape and having a length of about 2 cm. A slight coating of carbonate of lime occurs in places 

 over the surface, doubtless formed upon the meteorite while it lay in the soil, but aside from this the mass has a remark- 

 ably fresh and unoxidized appearance. The texture of the stone is quite firm and compact. Even to the naked eye 

 a chondritic structure is apparent and chondri about 2 mm. in diameter can be broken out. 



A brief chemical and microscopical examination shows the chief constituent minerals to be chrysolite, bronzite, 

 and nickel-iron, a fuller account of which will be given in a future museum publication The specific gravity is 3.62. 

 Having fallen in Saline township, this will be the name used for designating the meteorite. The region in which if fell 

 is one which has already, within an area of 85 by 120 miles, yielded five and possibly six distinct finds of meteorites of 

 such character that they must be considered separate falls. Now that an observed fall has taken place in the region, 

 it would seem that some reason must be sought for the large number other than mere coincidence or the fact that the 

 area is not forested. A further feature of interest in connection with the fall is the fact that it occurred at the time of 

 the Leonid showers. Only two such instances have hitherto occurred within this period, these two being the falls of 

 Werchne Tschirskaja and Trenzano. These are both veined spherical chondrites and the present indications are that 

 Saline township belongs in the same category. 



Later an account was given by the same author of the finding of free phosphorus in the 

 meteorite as follows: 



On drilling into the Saline Township meteorite recently for the purpose of breaking off a piece, a white "smoke" 

 was observed by the writer to rise from the drill hole when a depth of a little over 2 inches (5.5 cm.) had been 

 reached. This "smoke " had a pungent, garliclike odor which was recognized as similar to that of white phosphorus. 

 It was more pungent and resembled the odor of burning arsenic to some extent, but on the whole suggested that of 

 phosphorus more. It was at once surmised that phosphorus might exist in the free state in the meteorite, and the 

 supposition was soon confirmed by the following tests: 



1. On shielding the eyes from the light and looking into the drill hole, a luminous spot could plainly be seen at 

 the bottom. This spot on further observation showed itself to be actually made up of two. One of these was fixed 

 and central and the other moved around it, making a revolution every two or three seconds. This motion corresponded 

 to the swirling movement with which the fumes rose from the hole and doubtless represented the manner of supply of 

 air to fresh portions of the phosphorus. 



2. On holding a strip of paper saturated with silver nitrate in the fumes it turned black in a few moments. 



3. On treating some of the powder from the drilling with nitric acid and adding the solution so obtained to 

 ammonium molybdate, the familiar yellow precipitate of ammonium-phospho-molybdate was produced. 



The fumes continued to rise from the hole for about two hours, when they gradually diminished in volume and 

 disappeared. The odor could, however, be detected 18 hours afterwards. These observations were confirmed by 

 several of my associates. No effort has as yet been made to obtain a quantitative determination of free phosphorus 

 in the meteorite, nor is it likely that results of any particular value could thus be gained. Two holes were drilled the 

 same depth as the first in other parts of the stone, but from neither was any repetition of the above-named phenomena 

 observed. The phosphorus is (or was) probably, therefore, only locally distributed and in small quantity. The stone 

 where broken at the end of the hole first drilled shows a spot about half an inch in diameter differing considerably 

 in color from the rest of the stone, being brownish white in contrast to the greenish-black hue of the remainder. This 

 portion may prove on further examination, therefore, to be differently constituted. The properties above described 

 are those of free phosphorus, however, and the observations leave no doubt that it existed in the meteorite. This 

 seems to be the first known instance, then, of finding this element existing in the free state in nature. 



Klein 3 remarked beautiful eccentrically radiated chondri of enstatite hi the meteorite. 



