ELISHA MITCHELL SCIENTIFIC SOCIETY. 33 



A IJST AND DESCiaPTION OF THE METEORITES 



OF NORTH CAROLINA. 



BY F. P. VENABLE. 



So far as can be learned, twenty-three meteorites have been 

 reported as found in North Carolina. Facts with regard to these 

 have been collected under many disadvantages and with great 

 difficulty. A complete list of references in scientific literature 

 has proved an impossibility; still a great many such references 

 are given. It is also impracticable now to trace all of the pos- 

 sessors of portions of these meteorites. They have been divided 

 often into many pieces, and widely scattered. Only occasional 

 clues to their whereabouts can be gotten at the present time. 

 One fact is made ap{)arent, and that is, that nearly all have 

 passed out of the State, not even fragments being preserved 

 here. 



It will be noticed that, with the exception of one from Nash 

 county, all of the reported meteorites have come from Western 

 North Carolina. That many of these came to the light at all 

 has been due to the intelligent energy of General T. L. Cling- 

 man, to whom the State owes so much already for bringing to 

 notice her minerals and other possessions. 



It has been thought best to include in this list all reported 

 falls and finds. In the case of all proved to be non-meteoric, or 

 about which doubt exists, note is made under the proper head- 

 ing. If these doubtful ones be eliminated, as well as those not 

 belonging properly to the State, the number is reduced to about 

 twenty. There is doubt, however, whether the number should 

 be as great even as this, as there is cause for thinking the Madi- 

 son county, and, perhaps, some of the Buncombe county finds 

 may belong to the same fall. Still the number is large when 

 we bear in mind the comparatively small number of recorded 

 meteorites for the whole earth. Huntington in his catalogue 

 (1887) places the number at 424. 



