()02 METEORIC IRON IN ARKANSAS. 



the oS^ejc'd, Central Arabia, now i;i the British Museum, which fell iu 

 the sprinp^ of 1SG5, and weighs 59.420 kilos. The weight is 107J pounds 

 (48.752 kilos), and it is intact with the exception of three small points, 

 weighing not more than 2 ounces in all, which were broken off. One 

 of these is seen in the etched figure, another was sent to Professor Clarke 

 by Colonel Betten to be anal.^zed, and the third piece was lost. 



The two sides are wholly dissimilar (Tl. XXXVII, XXXVIII). In 

 fact one would scarcely suppose that they belonged to the same mass. 

 The upper side is ridged and deeplj' dented, while the lower side is flat 

 and covered with shallow, but very large pittiugs. On top the color is in 

 many places almost tin-white, without any coating whatever, and the pit- 

 tings are very deep and usually quite long, like finger depressions made 

 in potter's clay. These depressions measure from 2<"" to 4«"> in height and 

 from !<='" to 4*^™ in depth. This side is remarkable for stria) showing the 

 flow and burning and all running from the center toward the edge, ideu- 

 tical wtih those in the llowton, Nedagolla, and Mazapil irons, but on a 

 larger scale. Some of them are thinner than a hair and yet twice as high 

 (like a high knife-edge), antl they are from 1 to 4 inches long. In one 

 space of 5^'" twenty are arranged side by side, and on one small part 

 which is black there are fifty lines in 1 inch of space (25™'"), all running 

 in the same direction. Near all the pointed edges the fused metal has 

 flowed and cooled so as to hang like falling water. The stria) and marks 

 of flowing are around the edges of the ui)i)er surface (PI. XXXYIII). 

 On the under side the pittings are very shallow, but much broader, one 

 depression, apparently made up of four pittings, being 2(r™ long and O.S*"™ 

 wide. The whole side is coated with a black crust, 1"'™ thick and hav- 

 ing minute round bead-like markings. On one of the indentations of 

 the lower edge the crust has a strikingly fused appearance, as if aflame 

 had been blown on it from the other side. This edge is undoubtedly 

 the i^laco where a greater amount of burning took place when the body 

 was passing through the air. Seven small bead-like lumps, from 5""" 

 to 10™" in size, which are visible on this side, are drops of metal that 

 were entirely melted and flowed and cooled so that they resemble drops 

 of a thick liquid. There are also to be seen what appear to be cracks, 

 fifteen in number and nearly as thin as a hair. One of these is 10"^'" long 

 and extends from tne highly fused edge above mentioned toward the 

 center. The other cracks are from S*"-'" to 5*^"' long. These are so evenly 

 arranged that they are without doubt "lieichcnbacli lamellen" in which 

 the inner troilite has been burnt out. If such is the case they are as 

 abundant as in the Staunton, Va., (East Tennessee)* meteoric iron. 



On the upper side ten nodules of troilite are exposed,! measuring 

 from 33""" in diameter to 55""" long and 25'"'" wide. On the lower side 

 lliero are twelve such nodules exposed, 13'"'" in diameter, w^hile the larg- 

 t'st measures 19'"'" by 39'"'". On the upper side these nodules are coated 



• *PhiL Acad. Nat. Science, December 23, lb86, p. 366, and Aaiericau Journal Sci- 

 i.nco, series iii, vol. 34, p. 473. 

 t A. J. Science, scries iii, vol. 1.%, p. 337. 



