200 PROCEEDINGS OF THE AMERICAN ACADEMY 



that the specimen was native iron, he placed before me a large 

 amount of written evidence, showing that malleable iron, sufficient 

 in quantity to meet the wants of the natives, is obtained by heating 

 and then by fracturing the rocks of the country. The writers use the 

 term ore incorrectly, as Mr. Davis does, apparently in the belief that 

 iron ores increasing in richness become malleable. The metallurgical 

 knowledge of the natives is so limited, that they are unable to produce 

 copper from the carbonate of copper (malachite), which they carry 

 five or six hundred miles as a medium of traffic ; while their weap- 

 ons of iron, which I have examined, show the characters of native 

 iron, after it has been heated and hammered. 



" Physical Characters. — On developing the internal structure of the 

 mass of iron, by immersion for a few moments in strong nitric acid, 

 and immediately after washing in a mixture of lime and v/ater, it was 

 apparent that the minute crystalline particles were arranged in a 

 manner closely resembling those of the pure iron * in meteoric iron, 

 and entirely unlike the particles in artificial iron. 



" Where the mass had been heated, and had received blows, there 

 was an approach to the appearance presented by artificial iron, but 

 the internal parts, and nearly the whole of the mass, showed no marks 

 of percussive or laminating action. By the more complete develop- 

 ment of the structure, certain points appeared which were evidently 

 extraneous matter. Under the microscope these points showed crys- 

 talline minerals, which when separated proved to be quartz and octo- 



* " The character which is here noted has a higher value in a research of this 

 kind, than would have been inferred from a cursory examination. In a descrip- 

 tion of the remarkable meteoric iron, published in the American Journal of Science, 

 November, 1844, I alluded to the fact, that these masses are not made up of iron 

 alloyed with nickel and other metals, but consist of jmre iron, through which are 

 mixed portions of an alloy of nickel and iron, and iron and nickel and other 

 bodies, as distinct electro-negative matter, in relation to the pure iron. The Texas 

 meteoric mass and the small particles of the Western meteorolite liad the same 

 mechanical constitution. Since the first publication of my results, these re- 

 searches have been extended, so as to include the metals of commerce and the 

 well-known alloys. The numerous analyses made on these forms of matter have 

 not yet shown an exception to the condition, that the metal existing in the largest 

 proportion is in part pure ; while one, two, three, or more alloys may exist, dis- 

 tributed through it. When we take the results on a mass of crude iron in the 

 state of pig-iron, and on portions of the less and more malleable iron, of the differ- 

 ent steps of the manufacture, we not only pursue the constituents chemically, but 

 the mechanical state of the iron is at the same time open to view. A mass of pig- 

 iron thus becomes associated with meteoric iron, in the mechanical arrangement 



