METEORITES OF NORTH AMERICA. 417 



SMITHLAND. 



Livingston County, Kentucky. 



Latitude 37° 10' N., longitude 88° 25' W. 



Iron. Nickel-rich ataxite of Cohen; Braunite (type 3, Sec. 4) of Meuniei. 



Found 1839-1840; described 1846. 



Weight. Large mass of which all but about 4 kgs. (8-10 lbs.) was worked up. 



The history and characters of this meteorite were reviewed by Cohen 8 as follows: 



During the years 1840 to 1845 Troost ' obtained several pieces of meteoric iron to test for silver with the information 

 that large masses of the metal were to be had. From Colonel Player, in 1845, he first learned the place of discovery to 

 be Southland, in Livingston County, Kentucky, and at the same time obtained a piece weighing 2,154 grams besides 

 a cold chisel made of the iron. According to Player the original mass of considerable size had been worked down, to 

 some 4 kgs. The iron showed, according toTroost, a fine-grained fracture, the characteristics of steel and no indication 

 of crystalline structure. It was a shapeless mass and had a rough surface, the content of nickel estimated from a 

 partial analysis at some 10 per cent. 



Reichenbach 3 called attention to the fact that despite the homogeneous appearance accessory constituents were 

 not entirely lacking; he mentions fine stony bodies and a hollow space produced by the weathering out of sulphide of 

 iron. No Widmannstatten figures are produced by etching; the specific gravity is given as 7.56. If Smithland is to 

 be regarded as meteoric iron, like that of Babbs Mill, it apparently consists of plessite. 



Greg 3 made the statement in 1862 that Roscoe in a quantitative analysis had found an unusually high content of 

 nickel, and that by etching no sort of figures came out, but only a few small shiny particles which lay near to one 

 another in tolerably regular interspaces. He compared the iron with that of Rasgata and Green County, more especially 

 with the latter indeed. 



G. Rose 4 placed Smithland among those irons the meteoric origin of which he held doubtful. 



In 1885 Brezina 6 referred Smithland to the Cape iron group. The groundmass, in which small skeletons or leaflets 

 of schreibersite or rhabdite lie scattered in large numbers, shows by its usually darker color almost exactly similar appear- 

 ance to that of Kokomo. 



He mentions further numerous small troilite inclusions with laminte of daubreelite and sheaths of schreibersite, 

 as well as a thin crust resembling the usual fusion crust. In 1895 Brezina 7 identified the iron with the Babbs Mill group 

 which embraced very heterogeneous things. 



According to Meunier 6 the iron was absolutely identical with the Cape iron. 



My study was on a piece of about 100 grams weight .with one section surface of 14 sq. cm. This had the other 

 rounded bounding surfaces covered with a thin, for the most part somewhat oxidized fusion crust. After weak etching 

 the polished surface takes on a peculiar sheen like that of a thin coat of varnish. The accessory ingredients come out 

 very distinctly and, as Brezina has already noted, consist of troilite, schreibersite, and daubreelite, all in this case of 

 insignificant dimensions. The largest single individual troilite has a length of 1.8 mm. and a breadth of 0.4 mm, but 

 the greater number are only 1/30 as large and many are so small as only to be distinctly seen under the microscope. All 

 are of elongated form; a few run to a point at one end and are blunt at the other so that hemimorphic forms result, as in 

 the Cape iron. One of the largest troilites incloses a daubreelite plate 0.25 mm. in width which is perpendicular to 

 the long diameter and, therefore, indeed as in other iron meteorites, oriented parallel to the base; on a few places 

 besides large grains of 0.05 to 0.15 mm. occur in isolated heaps. Most of the troilites are bordered with a narrow zone 

 of schreibersite, the breadth of which, according to the size of the former amounts to between 0.02 and 0.08 mm.; in 

 reflected light under the microscope the schreibersite distinguishes itself from the troilite, in the case of very small 

 inclusions, by the color and luster. Moreover rhabdite occurs in small needles which occasionally arrange themselves 

 in star-shaped groups. 



The schreibersites borders do not show more distinctly by longer etching, the varnishlike luster fades, the polished 

 surface takes on a dark ash-gray color and becomes dull but attains a homogeneous appearance. Under the microscope 

 with higher powers only small regularly arranged points which reflect the light show themselves, but one sees neither 

 etched pittings nor any indication of granular structure as may be seen with like magnifying powers, for instance in the 

 case of Babbs Mill, to which in other respects it has great similarity. 



Analysis by Sjostrom: 



Fe Ni Co P S Cr 



82. 83 16. 42 0. 94 0. 09 0. 17 0. 06 =-100. 51 



Mineralogical composition: 



Nickel iron 99. 00 



Schreibersite 0. 58 



Troilite 0. 27 



Daubreelite 0. 15 



100.00 

 Specific gravity of 97.47 grams at 13.4° C. (Dr. W. Leick) 7.7115. 



This meteoric iron shows polar magnetism and gives a specific magnetism after magnetizing to "saturation," of 

 4.05 per gram. 



716°— 15 27 



