METEORITES OF NORTH AMERICA. 487 



IV. To the filtrate of III excess of caustic potassa was added to precipitate the oxide of nickel. This precipitate 

 exhibited no trace of cobalt, as shown by the blowpipe, etc. 



y. The filtrate from IV was next evaporated to dryness and ignited; the residue redissolved in aqua regia and to 

 the solution excess of potassa added; digested for several hours; precipitate very slight, affording only very faint 

 traces of cobalt but decided indications of nickel. 



VI. Miscellaneous qualitative tests were made whieh it is unnecessary here to enumerate, as no other ingredients 

 were detected. 



The following is the summary of results: 



Nickel 10.007 



Iron 89.993 



Cobalt Trace 



100. 000 

 Mallet 4 described the meteorite as follows : 



■ The following is the history of the Wichita County meteoric mass as given me by Hon. Henry P. Brewster, com- 

 missioner of insurance, statistics, and history of the State of Texas, a gentleman whose personal knowledge of the State 

 in its early days is extensive and accurate: 



The meteorite was found on the upper waters of Red River in what is now the county of Wichita, not far from the 

 Red River itself, on the opposite side of that stream from the part of the Indian Territory at present set apart for the 

 Kiowas, Comanches, and Apaches. It had been set up as a kind of "fetich " or object of worship or veneration by the 

 Indians, "who revered it as foreign to the earth and coming from the Great Spirit," at a point where several converging 

 trails indicated periodical visits to the spot. In 1858 or 1859 Major Neighbors, then commanding at Fort Belknap, 

 sent a wagon after the mass and had it brought into the fort. It was thence sent in a Government wagon to San Antonio 

 and subsequently moved to Austin, and there deposited in the old Capitol building, where it remained until the 

 destruction of the building by fire some three years ago. Removed from the ruins, it was placed in a passage on the 

 ground floor of the temporary Capitol now in use while the new and very handsome structure, intended for the perma- 

 nent seat of the State government, is being erected. During last winter the meteorite was turned over by the State 

 authorities to the University of Texas and is now preserved in the university building at Austin. 



The mass has an irregular, elongated pearlike shape, somewhat flattened, a good deal larger at one end than the 

 other, with tolerably smooth general surface but with well-marked concavities or shallow pittings, in every way present- 

 ing the appearance of a typical metallic meteorite. There is no well-defined crust but merely a thin, closely-adhering 

 film of oxide on the surface. There is no appearance of any effect from the Capitol fire through which it passed; very 

 probably the weight of the mass may have carried it rapidly, on the giving way of the floor, down to some position in 

 the basement in which it was sheltered from the heat by masonry rubbish accumulated over it. The dimensions of the 



specimen in its original state were — 



Mm. 



Maximum length 595 



Maximum breadth 305 



Maximum thickness 223 



The weight was a little under 100 kgs., as determined on a rather rough platform balance. 



A piece was cut off one end in order to display the character of the interior. Most of the iron was compact and 

 tolerably soft, tough, and malleable. Here and there occurred nodules of troilite of considerable size, the principal ones 

 ranging from 5 or 6 up to 23 mm. in diameter. Signs of the presence of thin plates of schreibersite could be seen even 

 without the use of acid, but that ingredient is not very abundant. The average specific gravity of the whole mass was 

 probably pretty fairly represented by that of a slice weighing 204 grams, which was found=7.841 at 24° C. 



A polished surface having been etched with nitric acid, Widmannstatten figures were clearly brought out, the 

 broad bands of crystalline nickel iron (with finer subordinate marldnga upon them) contrasting strongly with the more 

 sparingly occurring, well-defined lustrous lines of schreibersite. 



Chemical analysis of an average sample of the shavings taken off by a planing machine in cutting through the mass 

 gave: 



Iron 90. 769 



Nickel 8.342 



Cobalt 0.265 



Manganese Trace 



Copper 0. 018 



Tin 0. 004 



Phosphorus 0. 1'41 



Sulphur 0.016 



Graphitic carbon 0. 190 



Silica I 0.132 



Magnetic oxide iron j 



99.877 



