No. 2306. CUMBERLAND FALLS METEORITE— MERRILL. 105 



Incidentally, it may not be out of place to call attention to the fact 

 that this adds one more to the most acidic type of magnesia-rich 

 stones which have been seen to fall and all of which have come to us in 

 a period of a little more than 100 years. ^ 



It must be evident from what has gone before that this stone has 

 no exact counterpart among known meteorites and finds no exact 

 place in the prevailing scheme of classification. Disregarding the 

 inclosures of the chondritic stone it differs from the bustites, which 

 chemically it closely resembles, in carrying no appreciable amount of 

 oldhamite, plagioclase, or osbornite, and in its pronounced brecciated 

 structure. From the chladnites it likewise differs in structure and 

 its relatively high magnesia content. Nevertheless, it would seem 

 more nearly related to these groups than others, though on the 

 polished surface it suggests at first a remote similarity to the St. 

 Michel stone described by Borgstrom and relegated by him to the 

 Rhodites. The Cumberland Falls stone, how^ever, carries no chond- 

 rules. It is a breccia, as already noted, and its mineral composition, 

 aside from the chondritic inclusion, is limited almost wholly to the 

 enstatite with an intergrown monoclinic form, sporadic diallage, and 

 small quantities of metal, metallic sulphide, and graphite. In an 

 attempt to make a position for it in the system of classification gen- 

 erally adopted,^ I will suggest the name of Whitleyiie (Wht.), and 

 define it as a coarse white to gray breccia composed chiefly of ensta- 

 tite with minor quantities of diallage, metal, metallic sulphide, and 

 graphite, and with sporadic inclosures of a black chondritic stone. 

 The term Cimiberlandite might have been selected, but that this 

 name has been preempted by Wadsworth ^ for the terrestrial .peri- 

 dotite of Cumberland, Rhode Island. Whitley is the name of the 

 county in which Cumberland Falls occurs. 



EXPLANATION OF PLATES. 

 Plate 14. 

 Two complete individuals showing crust and pittings. Actual sizes: 9.5 by 8.5 by 5 

 cm. and 17 by 16 by 7 cm.; weights, 567 and 234 grams, respectively. 



Plate 15. 



Sawn and polished fragment showing brecciation and dark inclosures of chondritic 

 stone. Actual diameters, 9 by 12 cm. 



Plates 16 and 17. 

 Photo-micrographs under low magnification (about 5 diameters) showing structure. 



Plate 18. 

 Portion of slice shown in plate 15. Enlarged 3 diameters showing contacts between, 

 the fragmental enstatite and the chondritic stone and the peculiar distribution of 

 the metal in the latter. 



« See Merrill, G. P., The Percentage Number of Meteorite Falls and Finds considered with Reference 

 to their Varying Basicity. Proc. Nat. Acad. Sci., vol. 5, pp. 37-39, February, 1919. 

 » See Wuinng, pp. 445-460, 

 ' Lithological Studies, p. 8. 



