418 



METEORITES. 



■svitliouttbe least recoj>uition of tlie nature of the mineral by anyone either 

 there or at Cedarburg. A fourth piece should have been at the Korb 

 farm-liouse, but is not now to be found. The mass of sixty-two pounds 

 weight has, for a short time past, been in the cabinet of natural history 

 of I. A. Lapham, who succeeded in purchasing- it. 



The place where these meteorites were found, and its environs for a 

 mile in circumference, form a hilly tract quite thickly covered by forest 

 trees. The soil of this hilly district is a calcareous or argillaceous loam. 

 Ev^erywhere in the region are to be found fragmentary angular stones, 

 often several feet in diameter, and also round and smooth ones, all of 

 the oldest formation, which come from the so-called azoic rocks in the 

 north of Wisconsin, and which are interspersed in the quaternary dilu- 

 vium. This last forms a calcareous belt, thirty-six miles wide, along the 

 shore of Lake Michigan to Green Bay, and is regarded as belonging to 

 the Niagara and Clinton limestone formation. 



These drift rocks (Trilmmergesfeine) often cause the cultivator great 

 labor in reclaiming the laud. It is customary to see large pyramids of 

 stones heaped up in the iields, w^hich the farmer has dragged together, 

 with no little trouble, before he can till the soil. This is the case at 

 Korb's farm to a very extraordinary degree. To the quartzose and 

 granitic rocks strewed over this region, at an earlier time, and lying 

 uncovered or close under the soil, it is probably to be ascribed the fact 

 that the masses of meteoric iron which have been found had not to be 

 withdrawn through any very deep excavations of the ground. 



As Korb, and probably many others of the vicinage, had been led by 

 the finding of these iron meteorites to conjecture the existence of ricli 

 treasures of iron ore within the earth, I sought the more strenuously to 

 remove the disbelief in the cosmical origin of the bodies in question, 

 especially as that origin liad not at the time received the incontestable 

 confirmation of chemical analysis. 



Close to Korb's farm lies another on which is found, in the midst of 

 a wood, a small and very deep ])ond in the moor land. Near to it is a 

 ferruginous spring. On closer observation 1 found that this was nothing- 

 more than water flowing from the moors, and soon becoming stag- 

 nant through an overgrowth of decaying- plants — showing a slight im- 

 pregnation of iron — less even than much of the Avater drunk at Mil- 

 waukee. Only a few hundred steps from this, also in the forest, is a 

 rather large and very deep i)ond, surrounded by a quaking and scarcely 

 passable bog, some four hundred feet long and two hundred wide. The 

 pond is cnUed Burus's Lake. The whole scenery makes a dreary and 

 uncomfortable impression on the mind. I luive generally failed to find 

 hereabouts minerals containing iron, though Iron Ridge stretches from 

 Dodge County almost to the borders of Washington County. 



According to Dr. G. Bode's report, submitted to the Wisconsin Society 

 of Natural History, he has taken the samples for the careful chemical 

 analysis which he has executed from the piece weighing sixteen pounds. 

 This piece is externally covered with a brown, almost polished coat of 

 oxide of iron, imparting but slight coloration ; within, it is nearly of the 

 whiteness of silver; it is very soft, but of great toughness. The so- 

 called Widmannstiiten figures, characteristic of meteoric iron, admit of 

 being produced with great distinctness. 



The specific weight of the mass amounts to 7.3272. One hundred 

 parts contain, of iron, 89.22 per cent.; of nickle, 10.79 per cent.; of 

 phosphorus, 0.09 per cent., and a trace of cobalt. 



Tlie composition of all meteoric iron masses, thus far examined, is 

 very similar. Of nine different analyses, known to him, Dr. Bode states 



