320 



ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 193 3 



Santiago del Estero and the Chaco Nacional, and around the rail- 

 way station Gancedo (27°28' S., 61°30' W.). Native iron has been 

 known from this district since 1576, when it was discovered by 

 Hernan Mexia de Miraval. Kubin de Celis ^* in 1783 saw a mass 

 which has been variously estimated to weigh I3I/2 to 45 metric tons, 

 and a few large masses have since been collected. One weighing 

 1,400 pounds was presented to the British Museum by Sir Woodbine 



Figure 2. — Place of faU of the Campo del Cielo meteoric irons, showing numerous small 

 lakes in the vicinity ; stars indicate where masses of iron have been found. 



Parish in 1826. At the place is a group of round and shallow 

 depressions (hoyos or pozos), the largest, 78 by 65 meters, being 

 occupied by a lake, the Laguna Negra, the rim of which rises only 

 4 feet above the surrounding level pampa. These have recently 

 been examined by Dr. J. J. Nagera,^* the chief geologist of the 



^ de Celis, Michael Rubin. An account of a mass of native iron, found in South 

 America. Phil. Trans. Roy. Soc. London, vol. 78, pp. 37-42, 183-189, 1788. 



^* NSgera. J. J., Los hoyos del Campo del Cielo y el meteorito. DlrecciOn General de 

 Minas, Geologia e Hidrologfa, Argentina, Buenos Aires, publ. no. 19, 9 pp., 19 pis., 1926. 

 This report Is reprinted with some of the plates by Antenor Alvarea, El meteorito del 

 Chaco, 222 pp., 2 maps, 16 figs., Buenos Aires, 1926, where a detailed historical review 

 is given. 



