170 Field Museum of Natural History — Geology, Vol. III. 



of the surrounding hills was such that the meteorite in falling may 

 have come at a low angle from the west, north, or northeast. The 

 area is treeless but bears a sparse growth of grass and sage brush. 

 It is uninhabited except for a few sheep herders and occasional wander- 

 ing prospectors. The meteorite was found with its flat side down 

 and its arched side projecting above the ground. It lay with its long- 

 est dimensions in an east and west direction and was imbedded in the 

 mantle of soil covering the hill to a depth of 10 or 12 inches. Mr. 

 Jenney states that the contour of the surface of the ground had evi- 

 dently resulted from extremely slow erosion and there was no indi- 

 cation that the meteorite had ever been buried deeper and exposed 

 by the wearing away of the hillside. Under Mr. Jenney 's direction 

 a freight wagon drawn by a team of six horses and provided with a 

 crew of three men, and with derrick and chain pulleys, went to Quinn 

 Canyon and hauled the meteorite to Tonopah, the nearest railroad 

 point. The round trip consumed eight days. 



Through the generosity of Messrs. Stanley Field, R. T. Crane, Jr., 

 Cyrus H. McCormick, and George F. Porter of the Board of Trustees 

 of the Museum, the meteorite was acquired by this Museum in April, 

 1909. It was shipped from Tonopah under the direction of Mr. Jenney 

 and reached the Museum in good condition. It is the largest specimen 

 in the Museum collection and one of the large iron meteorites of the 

 world. 



In form the meteorite shows considerable shaping from its passage 

 through the air and hence, as is typical with such meteorites, is a low 

 cone. This form is due doubtless to the excessive action of the heat 

 and erosion of atmospheric resistance about the periphery of the 

 front side of the meteorite. Here the meteorite is worn away most 

 rapidly and thus acquires a slope toward the center. Another effect 

 of the atmospheric resistance is seen in the production of deep chan- 

 nelings, furro wings, pittings, and numerous cylindrical holes on the 

 front side. All these, while very irregularly distributed, have a 

 generally radial arrangement from the center outward. The outline 

 of the meteorite in the direction of its greatest length is essentially 

 oval though somewhat irregular. The contours may be seen by referring 

 to Plates LVI-LVIII. The longest diameter of the oval is 47 inches; 

 the diameter at right angles to this is 35 inches, and the circumfer- 

 ence 132 inches. The height of the cone is 20 inches. The weight of 

 the meteorite as determined by two careful weighings is 3,275 lbs. 

 (1,450 kilog.). The front or conical side of the meteorite and the rear 

 or basal side present very different appearances both in contour 



