METEORITES OF NORTH AMERICA. 475 



WALLENS RIDGE. 



Claiborne County, Tennessee. 



Here also, Waldron Ridge. 



Latitude 36° 30' N., longitude 83° 30' W. 



Iron. Coarse octahedrite (Og), of Brezina; Arvaite (type 7), of Meunier. 



Found and described 1887. 



Weight, 8kgs. (18 lbs.). 



This meteorite was first described by Kunz * as the Waldron Ridge meteorite. Ledoux 2 

 stated that the mass was found by a prospector on Waldron Ridge, 10 miles northeast of Cum- 

 berland Gap, Tennessee. The United States topographic maps of the region, however, do not 

 give the name of Waldron Ridge. They give Wallens Ridge, about 10 miles southeast of 

 Cumberland Gap. It seems probable to the writer that this was the locality of find of the 

 meteorite and he has therefore changed the name accordingly. 

 Kunz's ' account of the meteorite was as follows : 

 During March, 1887, Judge Fulkerson, of Tazewell, Claiborne County, Tennessee, received from some prospector 

 in the vicinity specimens of what was supposed to be an ore of iron. Some of these were sent to Dr. J. M. Harbison 

 and Prof. W. E. Moses, of Knoxville, Tennessee, to Dr. J. S. Newberry, of the School of Mines, Professor Safford, of the 

 University of Tennessee, and others. Through the kindness of the three former gentlemen specimens have come into 

 my possession. This iron is one of the Caillite group of Meunier. In structure it is one of the octahedral irons. On 

 the largest piece, weighing 15 pounds, this is very marked, as it is scarcely altered. All the other pieces, weighing 

 collectively several pounds, have been detached from around this piece which was apparently the center of the mass. 

 The smaller pieces all show considerable weathering. Several perfect octahedrons and one tetrahedron were obtained 

 by simply breaking the iron off with the fingers, it separating very readily at the cleavage plates between which, in 

 nearly all instances, were thin folia of schreibersite. Troilite was also observed as well as graphite, clearly suggesting 

 that this iron is identical with the Cosby Creek, Cocke County, the Sevier County, the Greenbrier County mass in the 

 British Museum, and the Jennies Creek, Wayne County, West Virginia, meteorites which, although independently 

 described, are evidently parts of one meteorite, as suggested by Huntington, which either exploded on entering our 

 atmosphere so that the fragments traveled according to their impetus, or else threw off these pieces at various periods 

 of its course. In all there was perhaps about 3 pounds, although it was supposed at first that there was a whole mine of 

 it. The other pieces were obtained after the 15-pound piece and not one of them weighed more than a pound. 



Ledoux 2 gave the following account: 



In this connection I will show another meteorite which I verbally described before this academy in 1887. It is 

 from Waldron Ridge, 10 miles northeast of Cumberland Gap, Tennessee. It weighs 12 pounds and was found by a 

 prospector for iron who sent it to me for analysis in May, 1887. From the same locality, later in the year, a larger piece 

 was also sent me, which by order of the owner, I turned over to Mr. Kunz. It is of the ordinary nickel-iron variety 

 containing: 



Fe 93.86 



Ni 6.01 



99.87 

 It undoubtedly belongs to the group of meteorites that have been found — all with similar characteristics— in 

 eastern Tennessee and Virginia, described by Kunz and others. 



Meunier 3 classed the meteorite as arvaite and remarked that it possessed all the characters 

 of that type. 



Huntington 4 remarked that the Waldron Ridge iron was generally accepted to be identical 

 with that of Cocke County. Later authorities do not, however, agree with this conclusion. 



The structure of the meteorite is described by Brezina 5 as follows : 



The lamellae are quite long, straight, in some places hatched and somewhat swollen. The taenite is normally 

 developed. Fields are less abundant than the bands and filled with kamacite-like combs. Upon the polished surfaces 

 ribs of cohenite appear crowded together in some places, in other places large crystals of schreibersite up to 5 cm. long 

 and 8 mm. thick, clustered together in radiating bunches, are seen covered with an envelope of schreibersite of 0.3 mm. 

 in thickness of another color set in swathing kamacite. Outcroppings of troilite and graphite of the size of peas may 

 be seen surrounded by schreibersite and troilite grains. 



The iron is distributed, the Vienna Museum having the largest piece (3,873 grams). 



BIBLIOGRAPHY. 



1. 1887: Kunz. On some American meteorites. — On a mass of meteoric iron from Waldron Ridge, Claiborne County, 



Tennessee. Amer. Journ. Sci., 3d ser., vol. 34, pp. 475-476. 



2. 1889: Ledoux. The Pipe-Creek Meteorite. Trans. New York Acad. Sci., vol. 8, p. 187 (analysis). 



