ELISHA MITCHELL SCIENTIFIC SOCIETY. 31 



TWO NEW METEORIC IRONS. 



BY F. P. VENABLE. 



I. FROM ROCKINGHAM COUNTY, N. C. 



Tills mass was reported to have fallen about the year 1846, 

 near the old " Mansion House/' Deep Springs Farm, in Rock- 

 ingham county, N. C. One of the old negro servants related to 

 Mr. Lindsay, the present owner of the farm, that ^' the rock fell 

 on a clear morning, and sti uck the ground about a hundred 

 yards back of the garden. It frightened every one very much. 

 Colonel Jas. Scales, the proprietor at that time, and Mr. Dillard 

 took a man and went to the spot, dug in about four or five feet 

 and got it out." It lay about the house as a curiosity for several 

 years, when it ceased to be of any more interest, and was thrown 

 aside. After Mr. T. B. Lindsay bought tlie farm he kept the 

 meteoric mass for several years upon his porch. In the fall of 

 1889 he presented it to the State Museum. The indentation in 

 the earth, where it is reported to have struck, is still pointed 

 out. 



The weight of the mass was 11.5 kilos. It had somewhat 

 the outline of a rhomboid, measuring 270 x 210 mm., and having 

 a thickness varying from 10 to 70 mm. It is coated with oxida- 

 tion products to a depth, in places, of several millimetres. These 

 give the whole mass a dull, reddish brown color. The surface 

 is irregularly pitted with broad shallow pits. It is somewhat 

 concave on one side. On being polished and etched it gave 

 faintly the Widmanstiitten figures. It belongs to the class of 

 sweating meteorites, beads of deliquesced ferric chloride appear- 

 ing on the surface. This lawrencite, so-called, is evidently un- 

 evenly distributed through the mass. Analyses from different 

 portions gave different amounts of chlorine. In one boring it 

 was noticed that the metal near the surface (within 2^'^) gave 

 a decided percentage of chlorine, while that coming from the 

 deeper part of the drill hole (3 — 5 cm. from surface) gave no appre- 

 ciable amount. 



