890 PROCEEDINGS OF THE ACADEMY OF [DeC, 



The only remaining questions in regard to this so-called crucial 

 experiment are : First, could the meteorite be reduced to this condition 

 of physical wreck? and second, do the fragments have the necessary 

 inherent magnetism? As to the last requirement, the overwhelming 

 majority of the fragments picked up on the surface, probably ninety- 

 eight per cent., do have this much magnetism, and some much more, 

 and there is no reason to believe that the fragments of the main mass, 

 if there be such, differ much, if any, in this regard from pieces collected 

 on the surface. 



Now, as to the probability of the shock of the collision breaking up 

 the body of a solid iron meteorite of considerable size to sufficiently 

 small fragments, it can only be submitted that the velocity and shock 

 were enormous, and that it has been shown that ordinary soft iron at 

 the temperature of liquid air is of about the brittleness of glass under 

 the shock of a blow. Now, as it is practically certain that the body of 

 such a falling mass would be at the actual absolute zero of space be- 

 neath its incandescent exterior, it seems much more than probable that 

 the result of such a collision would be to reduce the projectile to an 

 extremely fine state of subdivision in comparison with its original size. 

 If these conditions of subdivision and magnetism are present, and it 

 seems much more than probable that they are, the crux of the second 

 crucial experiment is also escaped and we may proceed to consider the 

 question on its merits, as nothing forbids us from allowing the possi- 

 bility that the wreck of a great iron meteorite may underlie the bottom 

 of the crater of Coon Butte. 



Distribution of Irons around the Hole. 



The early accounts of the locations of the finds of irons about this 

 locality the author regards as of very doubtful value, for the reason 

 that the great majority of these finds have been made by persons who 

 were engaged in the occupation of selling them to museums and col- 

 lectors, and who naturally did not wish to disclose the source of their 

 supply to others. Also, these previous finds have been principally of 

 large size, big enough in fact to enable them to take quite a divergent 

 trajectory from that of the main mass, and too few to enable any 

 reliable generalization to be drawn from their locations, even if the 

 latter could be regarded as thoroughly reliable. 



In the last two years the author and men in his and Mr. Barringer's 

 employ have picked up more than 2,000 such irons, ranging in weight 

 from 200 pounds down to a small fraction of an ounce, and have plotted 

 the position of these finds upon a chart which shows plainly that the 



