On the Discovery of Native Iron. 155 



usual characters of native iron, and is easily malleable. For 

 some distance around the place where it was found, the needle 

 will not traverse, and a great proportion of the tallest trees have 

 been struck with lightning. Whether these phenomena are con- 

 nected with the existence of a large mass of native iron, as yet 

 undiscovered, I leave for others to determine ; the facts, how- 

 ever, may be relied on.*" 



" Physical and Chemical Properties of the Native Iron of 

 Canaan^ ascertained in the Laboratory of Yale College, by 

 Mr C. U. Shepard, at the request of the editor. — In its first 

 appearance to the eye, the native iron of Canaan resembles 

 highly crystalline plumbago ; being every where invested with 

 a thin coating of this mineral, which complet^y defends it from 

 oxidation. Its structure is visibly crystalline, separating 

 with considerable readiness into pyramidal masses, and more 

 usually into oblique tetrahedra. This cleavage, however, never 

 takes place without the intervention of thin scales of plumbago. 

 It falls considerably short of meteoric iron in malleability, 

 toughness, and flexibility ; as well as in the silvery whiteness of 

 its lustre, which, in part, is no doubt due to the plumbago dif- 

 fused through it. In hardness and magnetic properties it does 

 not differ perceptibly from pure iron. Its specific gravity varies 

 from 5.95 to 6.72. 



" Intermingled with it occasionally is native steel. One an- 

 gular fragment, weighing about eight grains, was perfectly 

 brittle, sufficiently hard to scratch glass, and possessed of the 

 characteristic granular structure, and silvery white colour of 

 steel. With the microscope no scales of plumbago were notice- 

 able in it. Dissolved in dilute nitric acid, it afforded an evident 

 quantity of black, carbonaceous matter, upon the surface of the 

 solution. 



" A fragment of the native iron, weighirjg 100 grains, was 

 dissolved in dilute nitro-muriatic acid. The plumbago attached 

 to it being left behind, was separated, and found to weigh six 

 grains. To the solution was added, in excess, perfectly caustic 

 liquid ammonia, by means of which the iron was thrown down. 

 The ammoniacal solution was then examined for lead, copper, 

 or any other metal which might be present, by adding to it 



