METEORITES OF NORTH AMERICA. 419 



It weighed originally about 11 pounds, and was covered with a coating of rust. Its structure is highly crystalline, 

 and when polished and either heated or acted on by nitric acid furnishes remarkably fine Widmannstatten figures 

 with delicate markings on the inside of the figures, which I designated some time ago as Laphamite markings, having 

 first observed them on the Wisconsin iron. 



This iron contains narrow seams of schreibersite that penetrate the mass for several centimeters in different direc- 

 tions, some of them being 2 or 3 mm. in thickness. In one part of the iron I discovered some solid chloride of that 

 metal, enough to test its nature, and I detached a small fragment that is now in the museum of the Garden of Plants, 

 at Paris. It attracted moisture after having been taken from a crevice in the iron, and became quite soft. This is 

 the second time I have observed this solid chloride in meteoric iron. 



The nickeliferous iron, constituting the mass, exhibits the characteristics common to iron meteorites, viz, more 

 or less diversity in the character of the iron in different parts, these varieties being so intimately associated that we 

 possess no means of separating them . Doctor Genth considers it as composed of three different kinds of iron. I selected 

 a fragment perfectly free from any schreibersite visible to the eye; it gave a specific gravity of 7.78, and on analysis 



was found to contain: 



Fe Ni Co Cu P 



90.88 8.02 0.50 0.03 0.03 =99.46. 

 This will seem to correspond to the analysis by Doctor Genth before referred to. 



Brezina, 5 in 1885, made the meteorite the type of a subdivision of the fine octahedrites, 

 stating its characters as follows: 



Bands isolated, straight, very puffy, 0.25 mm. wide. Fields predominant, quite filled with a felt of fine branching 

 twigs. Large troilite inclusions. 



In 1895 he 8 changed his opinion regarding the troilite inclusions, stating that they were 

 "schreibersite, surrounded by swathing kamacite 1 mm. in breadth, with troilite nodules." 

 Cohen B described the structure of the iron as follows: 



The long, straight lamellae are not grouped; occasionally several lie quite close together, but they are still sepa- 

 rated by very small plessite strips. The borders of the larger lamella? are sometimes straight, sometimes wavy, while 

 the smaller are mostly puffy. The fields predominate and are quite uniformly distributed, taenite is distinctly visible. 

 The kamacite is much hatched and shows a somewhat fibrous aspect. Under a higher magnifying power it appears 

 fine-granular between the etching lines. This structure seems like etching pits but may indeed be dust-like inclu- 

 sions. The predominating fields measuring up to 10 sq. mm. show without exception, and in the most perfect manner, 

 a structure which in appearance resembles exactly the micropegmatitic structure of terrestrial rocks. It is much larger 

 and finer here and, therefore, better developed than in the case of Jewell Hill. Fine-grained, dark plessite, with 

 tiny, glistening spangles forms a compact groundmass, which is so evenly interwoven with taenite that it appears upon the 

 section surface in thread-like filaments of very various forms. The taenite apparently forms an individual and plays the 

 role of the quartz in pegmatite. Whether, however, the plessite is like feldspar, an individual or a very fine-grained 

 composition, must remain uncertain. Still the latter seems to me more probable considering the formation which such 

 plessite usually shows. The small, elongated fields crowded between the lamellae are scarcely noticeable even under 

 the glass, and are filled with black, compact plessite, which, however, on greater magnification, also appears finely 

 granular, and is distinguished from the groundmass of the larger fields merely by its finer grain. Occasionally these 

 small fields are crossed by one or more fine lamellae which reach from side to side. 



Schreibersite occurs on the one hand in small grains within the bands and on the other hand in large crystals, 

 surrounded with swathing kamacite, with inclusions and indentations of nickel-iron. In the neighborhood of rifts 

 following the lamellae from the surface inward occur large numbers of small round particles of iron-glass (sections of 

 spheres), filling many bands pretty compactly. There is no troilite in the section which I have. 



The meteorite is chiefly preserved in the State Museum at Raleigh, North Carolina. 



BIBLIOGRAPHY. 



1. 1872: Tschermak. Meteoriten. M. M. Bd. 2, p. 172. 



2. 1874: Smith. On a mass of meteoric iron of Howard County, Indiana; with some remarks on the molecular struc- 



ture of meteoric irons, and a notice concerning the presence of solid protochloride of iron in meteorites. Amer. 

 Journ. Sci., 3d ser., vol. 7, p. 395. 



3. 1875: Kerr. Rept. Geol. Survey North Carolina, vol. 1, pp. 313-314. 



4. 1877: Smith. Examination of the Waconda meteoric stone, Bates County meteoric iron, and Rockingham County 



meteoric iron. Amer. Journ. Sci., 3d ser., vol. 13, pp. 213-214. (Analysis.) 



5. 1885: Brezina. Wiener Sammlung, p. 210. 



6. 1885: Genth and Kerr. Minerals of North Carolina, p. 15. 



7. 1890: Venable. Meteorites of North Carolina. Journ. Elisha Mitchell Sci. Soc, vol. 7, p. 48. 



8. 1895: Brezina. Wiener Sammlung, p. 269. 



9. 1905: Cohen. Meteoritenkunde, Heft 3, pp. 358-360. 



