Oct., 1907. Mkikorite Studies II — Parking r<>\ 127 



Except where it lias scaled off in small areas the meteorite is cov- 

 ered with a firmly adherent, dull brown-black crust, rough from the 

 protrusion of thickly scattered metallic grains. These grains are 

 darker in color than the rest of the crust, probably from a coating of 

 iron oxide. When this coating is scraped away, however, the bright 

 nickel-white color of the metallic grains is seen. One of the grains 

 showed bright when the meteorite was received, but it may perhaps 

 have become so through handling. It is the largest single grain to be 

 seen. It has a hemispherical form and a diameter of 5 mm. The shapes 

 of the other metallic grains as they protrude are various. Some are 

 elongated, some nearly circular and others form small connecting 

 groups. For the most part the grains are independent of each other, 

 but there are two well-defined' groups of them extending in irregular 

 lines and standing out like veins. These are not straight in their 

 course but nearly so. The extent of each is about 6 cm. (2^ inches). 

 One runs from the large grain mentioned above, the other is nearlv 

 parallel to it 7 inches (18 cm.) distant. 



Besides being broken by the protrusion of the metallic grains, the 

 crust is seamed and fissured by numerous cracks extending in all direc- 

 tions and varying in extent and depth. The largest has a length of 6 

 inches (15 cm.), and from this to the minutest fissures all gradations 

 occur. The course of most of the cracks is straight towards the inte- 

 rior of the meteorite, but some run so as to tend to scale off. They 

 give the exterior of the meteorite a "baked" look and there can he 

 little doubt that they are the result of differential expansion through 

 heat of the interior as compared with the exterior. Scaling of the crust 

 had occurred at various points when the mass reached the Museum. 

 Many of these scalings must, on account of their freshness, have 

 occurred very shortly before the meteorite struck the earth or from the 

 force of impact. Most of the surfaces thus exposed were covered with 

 an adherent coating of carbonate of lime when the stone was received 

 at the Museum. The lime undoubtedly deposited more readily here 

 on account of the increased capillary attraction afforded by such sur- 

 faces. The color of these surfaces was for the most part rusty brown 

 from exposure, but a few were of a greenish -gray color where "the car- 

 bonate of lime was freshly removed. In addition to these wholly 1111- 

 crusted surfaces one about three inches square had a very thin black 

 crust, much thinner than the average crust. It is evident that at this 

 point a piece scaled off from the meteorite during its passage through 

 the air and time sufficed for Only a partial fusing of the freshly exposed 

 surface. 



Internally the substance of the meteorite when freshly broken is 



