THE RODEO METEORITE. 



BY OLIVER CUMMINGS FARRINGTON. 



This meteorite is an iron mass found about 1852 by a goat-herder 

 in an arroya north of the Nazas River, 12 kilometers northwest of 

 the hamlet of Rodeo, State of Durango, Mexico. The location is 

 approximately 25 20' N. lat. and 104 40' W. long. Upon discovery 

 of the iron it was made to do duty as an anvil at a forge for many 

 years. As received at the Museum, evidence of its industrial use 

 was to be seen in its having been beaten flat and smooth on one side. 

 The surface so treated is apparent in Plate II., by its smoothness and 

 turned-over edges. The meteorite as a whole is irregular in form 

 and without marked orientation. Its extreme dimensions are 12 x 

 9x8 inches (30 x 23 x 20 cm.). Its weight when received was 97 

 pounds (44.1 kgs.). An attempt had evidently been made at some 

 time to cut off a portion of the mass with a cold-chisel, thus producing 

 the incision shown in Plate I. Above this a small surface appears 

 that was filed smooth for etching. In other respects the surface of 

 the meteorite has the natural contours. The surface in general, 

 though irregular, is everywhere rounded, showing no angular or 

 sharp edges. There are many partially defined pittings of various 

 depths and diameters, the largest of these having an elliptical out- 

 line and being 4 inches (10 cm.) in length, 3 inches (8 cm.) in width, 

 and about 1% inches (4 cm.) in depth. The position and character 

 of this pit are shown in Plate I. In color the surface of the meteorite 

 is darkened by exposure, but it has nowhere rusted deeply, and in 

 several places the nickel- white color of the metal is visible. In such 

 places Widmanstatten figures often can be seen also. On any pol- 

 ished surface of the meteorite, too, the figures appear nearly as 

 plainly as after etching. 



Several complete sections of the meteorite were made in order to 

 determine its interior structure. All show on etching well-defined 

 figures octahedral in character. A photograph of one of these etched 

 sections is shown in Plate III. The bands (Balken) are more numer- 

 ous than the meshes (Felder), yet the latter occupy a considerable 

 amount of the total area. Through a belt about two inches (5 cm.) 

 in width running across the middle of most of the sections a minutely 

 dotted appearance is presented resembling that described by Brezina 



