ELISHA MITCHELL SCIENTIFIC SOCIETY. 



37 



5. 



IIoMLW CwEEK Meteorite. 



Localiti/ — Ildininy Oeek, Bunconibe county. Analysis — Sliejiard and ("lark. 



Tiie Hominy Creek meteorite, sometimes referred to simply as 

 Buncombe county meteorite, was secured for Dr. She|)ar(l by 

 Hon. T. L. Clingman. Tlie original discoverer was a Mr. 

 Clarke, and the date of the discovery seems to have been 1845. 

 It was found in a field near the base of Mount Pisgah, some 

 ten miles west of Asheville. Another much larger [)iece was 

 reported to have been found in the same field. The mass 

 weighed twenty-seven pounds. It was rather fiat on one side, 

 while its other sides were irregular, with cavities and various 

 incqualitie-^. Externally, it bore resemblance to a cinder from a 

 blacksmith's fire. It measured eleven inches in length by seven 

 in breadth, and was four in thickness at the thicker end, while at 

 the other extremity it is not above two and a half. On the 

 lower edge it thinned down to about one inch. Its surface was 

 rather jagged than pitted with regular depressions. In color it 

 was various shades of brown to black, and somewhat variegated 

 with an ash-colored earthy matter, derived undoubtedly from 

 having served for a considerable time as a support for fuel in the 

 fire-place of a farmer's kitchen. Upon the under side there 

 adhered over a few inches a crust of an earthy, black amygdaloid 

 nature, scarcely distinguishable, unless freshly broken, from the 

 iron itself, and in one spot a few grains of a dull, yellowish gray 

 olivine were noticed. Etched surfaces, excepting where the 

 structure is highly vascular, exhibit the most delicate Widman- 

 stiitten figures. Specific gravity, 7.32. 



SHEPARD. 



Iron 98.19 



Chromium and Cobalt traces. 



Nickel 0.23 



Carbonaceous, insoluble 

 matter and loss.. 



1.58 



100.00 



