THE METEORIC IRON WHICH FELL IN JOHNSON COUNTY ARK 

 3.17 P. M., MARCH 27. 1886. 



By ciEoaecsE: f. kuxz. 



[Witli Plates XXXVI— XXXVIII.] 



The Joliiison County meteoric iron, the latest whoso fall lias been ob- 

 served, is of more than ordinary interest, because its fall is so well sub- 

 stantiated. It is the largest mass ever actually seen to fall; and it is 

 noticeable that it fell within five months of the date of the last previous 

 authentically* recorded fsill, that of the Mazapil iron. It is almost an 

 exact counterpart of the larger of the Ilraschina (Agram), Croatia, me- 

 teoric irons, the first of the recorded falls. The Agrain iron fell in two 

 fragments, one weighing about 40 kilos (88 pounds) and the other about 

 9 kilos (lO.S pounds), the combined weight being about equal to that of 

 the Johnson County iron. The latter was lost at the time. 



This mass fell about G miles east of Cabin Creek (now Lamar, see Plate 

 XXXVI), Ark., in longitude 93° 17' west of Greenwich, latitude 35o 24' 

 north, within 75 yards of the house of Christopher C. Shandy. Cabin 

 Creek is on the north side of the Arkansas Eiver. Mrs. Shandy states 

 that about 3 oclock (at 3.17 p. m. exactly) on the afternoon of the 27th 

 of March, 1880, while in her house she heard a very loud report, which 

 caused the dishes in the closet to rattle, and which she described as 

 louder than any thunder she had ever heard. At first she thought it 

 was caused by a bombshell, and ran out of the house in time to see the 

 limbs fall from the top of a tall pine tree, which, she says, stands about 

 75 yards from her dwelling. She did not investigate the matter until 

 her husband came home about G o'clock in the evening, when, in com- 

 l^any with John R. Xorton, their hired man, they went out to find the 

 cause of the noise that had so startled Mrs. Shandy. They discovered 

 that a large hole had been made in the ground by some falling object, 

 and that the fresh earth had been thrown up to a height of 30 feet on 

 the surrounding saplings and trees. They dug down, and a steam or 

 exhalation arose, which on a dark night might perhaps have produced a 

 l)hosphorescence similar to that described in the case of the ^lazapil iron. 

 The iron had buried itself in the ground to the depth of 3 feet, and the 

 earth around it to the thickness of one inch seemed to be burned. 



The ground was still warm when the iron was taken out, and the iron 

 itself was as hot as the men could well handle. The weather had been 



* This meteorite was first mentioned before the New York Mineralogical Club, Feb- 

 rnaiy 2 (Ncav York Academy Science, March). The irons whose falls have been re- 

 corded thus far, are: Agram, Croatia, May 26, IT.")!. Charlotte, Dickson County, 

 Tenn., August 1, 18:15. Braunau, Bohemia, July 11, 1847. Tabarz, Saxony, October 

 18, 1854. Victoria West, Africa, 18G2. Nc.jed, Central Arabia, spring of 180r), Ncda- 

 golla, India, .January 23, 1870. Kowton, Shropshire, England, April 20, 187(5. Maza- 

 pil, Mexico, November 27, 1885. 

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