MINERALOGY. 303 



meteorites thus far found possess thoroughly individual characteristics ; 

 therefore each ne^Y discovery of a meteorite is met with the expectation 

 of some new information regarding the composition and history of other 

 worlds than ours. This new meteorite was thoroughly unique in its 

 general character and brought to us a mineral which was heretofore 

 unknown. 



In Emmett County, Iowa, on the 10th of May, 1879, at five o'clock in 

 the afternoon, although the sun was still shining and the day clear, a 

 large meteorite was seen to pass across the sky. One person saw it at 

 a distance of one hundred miles from the place of its fall. It is said to 

 have made a noise "terrible and indescribable," which was louder than 

 that of artillery, aud which frightened the cattle as much as the peojile. 

 One piece, five hundred pounds in weight, struck the earth at such a 

 velocity that it buried itself fourteen feet in a stiff clay soil, A second 

 piece, weighing one hundred and seventy pounds, and a third, weighing 

 one hundred and forty j)ounds, were found in the neighborhood. More- 

 over, the prairie far aud near was scattered with little pieces, hundreds 

 of which were gathered. One remembers in this connection the multi- 

 tude of little meteorites which fell at Pultusk, one or more of which are 

 in every collection. The largest of the pieces of this Emmett County 

 meteorite was sold for a great sum to the British Museum ; * the second 

 piece remained in the Iowa University collection, and the third was 

 purchased by Yale College. The circumstances of the foil of this me- 

 teorite were first described by Professor Peckham, and Dr. J. Lawrence 

 Smith afterward submitted it to careful investigation in the laboratory, 

 and found it to contain a new magnesium iron silicate, which he named 

 Peckhamite. The other constituents were chiefly metallic iron and 

 olivine, which are common constituents of meteorites, but this meteorite 

 was characterized by the great size of its olivine grains. It is partly on 

 account of such large crystals that it is commonly believed that these 

 meteorites once formed parts of greater bodies, from which they have 

 been broken. The history of Biela's comet will be remembered in this 

 connection, which on one of its periodic appearances was found to have 

 divided, and which subsequently finally disappeared from the sky, 

 though a meteoric shower occurred at about the time that it should 

 have appeared. 



Mr. Hidden has also found some interesting meteoric irons in the 

 South. One of these was plowed out of the ground iu Cleburne 

 County, Alabama, in 1S73. Though the circumstance of its being 

 metallic iron excited the curiosity of the people, no one corisidered it 

 as anything of value. A piece of it was forged into a tool, and the 

 rest lay for years in the blacksmith shop, unknown and unappreciated. 

 It l^as now been investigated by Dr. J. Lawrence Smith, who has done 

 so much in the chemical study of these bodies. 



Another block of meteoric iron weighing 120 pounds has been found 

 * Wo should have a fund to keep such interesting things in this country. 



