96 PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL MUSEUM. vol.55. 



individual (it is plainly not a fragment), it seems more than doubt- 

 ful if there is any connection between the phenomena described by 

 Broadhead and this particular fall. 



On casual inspection the stone resembles an ordinary decomposed 

 bowlder of basic igneous rock, much oxidized, cracked, and some- 

 what exfoliated (see pis. 1 and 2). Closer inspection, however, shows 

 still remaining traces here and there of fusion crusts, which gath- 

 ered in thicker blebs and drops on what was plainly the rear of the 

 stone in its flight through the atmosphere. These are distinctly 

 shown in the lower portion of plate 2. A polished surface of a frag- 

 ment removed from the already broken portion at the upper left of 

 figure 2 shows a texture as fine, firm, and hard as that of the stone 

 of Estacado, Texas. The color is dark-brown gray and the indis- 

 tinct chondrules much darker. Thin sections under the microscope 

 show it to be a crystalline spherulitic caondrite, consisting essen- 

 tially of olivine and enstatite with the usual sprinkling of metal and 

 sulphide, the metallic particles being small and quite inconspicuous 

 excepting when a polished surface is viewed in reflected light. Occa- 

 sional small, colorless particles showing an indistinct twin banding 

 may be feldspathic. Oxidation has proceeded too far in the frag- 

 ment available for study to make a chemical analysis seem worth 

 the while. It was hoped the holders of the stone w^ould permit its 

 being cut to sufficient depth to yield less oxidized material. This, 

 however, they are averse to doing. 



This stone when received weighed 31,500 gram.s. This, allowing 

 1,500 grams for the fragments lost through breaking and exfoliation, 

 gives an approximate original weight of 36 kilograms for the entire 

 mass. The dimensions are 36.5 cm. by 33 cm. by 20.5 cm. It will be 

 known as the Kansas City meteorite, the fourth stone found within 

 the limits of the state.^ 



1 1 find the following in the American Journal of Science for 1876, " On the fall of a 

 Meteorite in Kansas City, Missouri, June, 1876, by John D. Parlser (letter to Editors 

 dated Kansas City, Mo., Aug. 2, 1876). On June 25, 1876, between the hours of 9 and 

 10 in the morning, a small meteorite fell upon the tin roof of Mr. Isaac Whittaker's busi- 

 ness house, No. 556 Main Street, Kansas City, Mo. The meteorite came down with sufB- 

 cient force to cut a hole in the tin roof on the front part of the house near an open 

 window, hut not passing entirely through the tin, it bounded hack a few feet and lay 

 on the I'oof. Mrs. Baker, who occupies rooms in the front part of the house in the second 

 story, and Mrs. Whittakor, were standing near the window when tlie meteorite fell, and 

 heard the sharp concussion when it struck the roof. Mrs. Baker iramediati'Iy picked up 

 the meteorite as it lay near her on the roof, but dropped it again, finding it too hot to 

 retain it in her hand. The meteorite is a plano-convex specimen, al>out 12 inches in di- 

 ameter and about h of an inch in thickness. The outside or convex surface possesses the 

 usual crusted appearance, while the inside or plane surface differs from ordinary meteo- 

 rites in possessing (he appearance of sulphuret of iron, subjected to some degree of heat, 

 instead of nickeliferous iron. One might easily infer that the meteorite was shaled off 

 from a large bolide that passed over the city at that time. As it fell in the city, I have 

 named it the Kansas City Meteorite. It has not been subjected to chemical analysis." 



As nothing further has been learned regarding the above, and as, moreover, the 

 meteoric nature of the object would seem to be at least doubtful, the name given it by 

 Mr. Parker is not to be found in existing literature and may well be preempted, to use a 

 mining term, in favor of the present fall. 



