THE MUSEUM. 



349 



May, 1889, where it had been depos- 

 ited by the owner, Lorenzo Sundt, 

 who said that he purchased it in 1884 

 of a woman who kept a green grocery 

 store at the port of Chanaral, Chih, 

 (latitude about 26 degrees south). 

 When first seen by him it was sur- 

 rounded and partially covered with 

 onions, and a spider had made its 

 home in a specially deep pitting. 



It had been brought in from near 

 the mining camp of Merceditas, ten or 

 twelve leagues to the east of Chanar- 

 al, by the woman's husband a miner, 

 who thought it must be silver. 



The general form of the meteorite 

 is, as shown in the illustration, unusu- 

 ally angular with no rounded corners. 

 In addition to the usual pittings, which 

 are well marked and characteristic on 

 all sides, there are numerous small 

 pittings, apparently of latter forma- 

 tion, arranged in parallel rows about 

 half an inch apart. These bear no 

 relation to the other pittings, but are- 

 evidently referable to the structure, 

 and although more numerous in some 

 places than others are seen on all 

 sides, and arranged in planes that cross 

 those of the adjacent sides at right an- 

 gles, approximately. Some of those on 

 two sides may be seen in the illustra- 

 tion. This meteorite measured thir- 

 teen by nine inches and weighed 94^ 

 pounds. 



By running a gang of six saws 

 through it, cutting it into five sections 

 and tw^o end pieces, it revealed sever- 

 al large nodules of trolite, directly in 

 the centre of some of which, and en- 

 tirely surrounded by the troilite, are 

 nodules of iron. An etched surface 

 of one of these sections is suggestive 

 of a Scotch plaid, so broad and straight 

 are the markings, two sets of which 



cross each other at nearly right angles, 

 while a third set crosses one of these 

 at an angle of 12 degrees. Some of 

 the more prominent lines of kamesite 

 are about half an inch apart, and sug- 

 gest very strongly, both by their di- 

 rection and spacing a relationship to 

 the lines of small pitting on the out- 

 side. 



We cannot close this sketch with- 

 out giving a brief description of the 

 Farmington, Washington Co., Kansas 

 meteorite. 



On Wednesday, June 25, 1890, at 

 12:55 Central time, a roaring, rumb- 

 ling sound was heard within a radius 

 of 100 miles around Washington, 

 Washington, Co., Kansas, and many 

 observers noted a meteorite traveling 

 from south to north, which in its 

 course left a double trail of smoke. 

 The sun at the time was shining bright- 

 ly, and hence no light was seen. The 

 explosion was likened by various ob- 

 servers to a bolt of lightning, the 

 bursting of the boiler of an engine or 

 the boom of a distant cannon. The 

 largest portion weighing 180 pounds, 

 struck on the farm of W. H. January, 

 who was greatly alarmed, as it struck 

 very near him while he was under his 

 wagon repairing it. This piece pene- 

 trated the hard, shaly earth to a depth 

 of four feet. 40 pounds of it were 

 broken off and distributed before it 

 was placed on exhibition, after which 

 the main mass, weighing 1361 pounds, 

 was sold and resold several times, and 

 now is in the collection referred to 

 above. 



A distinct mass w-eighing nine 

 pounds, now in the possession of 

 George F. Kunz of Tiffany & Co., 

 New York City, was found on the 

 farm of John Windhurst; and it is evi- 



