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PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL MUSEUM. 



VOL. 57. 



though not with absolute certainty. The study of the sections shows 

 that the line of contact between the light stone and the dark inclo- 

 sures, while apparently sharp, is, as shown in the thin section, quite 

 irregular, as a rule particles from the one projectmg into the other, 

 though the superior hardness and toughness of the dark stone make 

 this a less conspicuous feature than it might otherwise have been. 

 Portions of the enstatite, are, however, jammed into the chondritic 

 stone and particles of the chondritic stone into the enstatite as shown 



in the accompanying figure. In one in- 

 stance where a section has been so cut 

 as to cause one of these interpenetra- 

 tions to appear as an inclusion in the 

 chondritic stone, a minute fault can be 

 traced cutting through both pieces and 

 maldng itself conspicuous by a slight 

 off-set. Apparently, the admixture of 

 the two kinds of fragments took place 

 ]>rior to the evident compression and 

 both stones were involved. The numer- 

 ous slickensided areas, sometimes of a 

 few square centimeters dimensions, fur- 

 ther testify to the compression and con- 

 densation in mass which the stone has 

 undergone. 



These structural characteristics are, as 

 it seems to me, to be accounted for onlj 

 on the supposition that the detrital mat- 

 ter composed of materials derived from 

 the disintegration of previously consoli- 

 dated rock masses of at least two dis- 

 tinct types, accumulated on the surface 

 as in the case of an ordinary terrestrial 

 volcanic breccia. Subsequently the 

 beds were deeply buried and through 

 Fia.i. Showing CONTACT BETWEEN DARK cTustal movements the material com- 



CHONDRITIC AND LIGHT ENSTATITE STONE. i • . •, t • 



pressed mto its present condition. 

 This carries with it the supposition that the meteorite is but a 

 spawl from a very much larger mass, one of such size, indeed, as to 

 have been subject to such crustal movements as are incidental to 

 mountain making and which find their terrestrial counterpart in 

 regions of maximum disturbance, as in the steep synclinal folds of 

 our southern Appalachians. How large such a mass must be it is 

 impossible to say, but that it must have been of planetary dimensions 

 would seemingly be a safe assumption. In fact, that the fragments 

 are direct evidence of the destruction of some preexisting planet 

 seems a legitimate conclusion. 



