10 PROCEEDINGS OF THE AMERICAN ACADEMY 



masses consisted wholly of iron exhibiting a highly developed crystal- 

 line structure, and in one at least, which passed into the possession of 

 Mr. Howell of Rochester, N. Y., one end of the mass was pure iron 

 whila the rest was pallasite. We give a figure of an etched slab of 

 this last mass. Figure 6, Plate III., which is printed directly from the 

 iron. When first found, one was inclined to believe that the irons and 

 the pallasites so closely associated over an area hardly exceeding sixty 

 acres could not have come from the same fall, and this opinion seemed 

 supported by the greater coarseness of the Widmanstiittian figures on 

 the sections of the isolated irons ; but such association as is exhibited in 

 Figure 6, Plate III., makes the intimate connection evident, and gives 

 evidence in favor of the theory which regards meteorites as resulting 

 from intensely violent volcanic outbursts on the surface of a planet so 

 far cooled that the still melted nucleus was coated with an earthy 

 crust, through which the surface water as it condensed percolated to 

 the molten interior. By the resulting violent eruptions, of which we 

 can form only a faint conception from terrestial volcanoes of the 

 present day, this crust would be fissured on long lines of least resist- 

 ance, and volcanic bombs thrown into space beyond the sphere con- 

 trolled by the planet's attraction. Tiiose bombs which came from the 

 zone of contact of the melted iron with the crust would naturally have 

 the structure of pallasites, mixed with masses consisting wholly or 

 chiefly of metal. The specimen from which Figure 6 is printed 

 seems to furnish the link needed to connect the stony with the iron 

 meteorites, and if the iron portion be compared with the iron in 

 Figure 3, Plate II., from the same fall, it will be seen of how little 

 value the appearance of the etched surfaces would be in identifying 

 selected portions from the two slabs. 



The result of this discussion merely shows the impossibility of iden- 

 tifying these pallasites, which at first sight appear so much alike. If 

 the Kiowa County specimens are accepted as identical with the one 

 from the mounds, then both must be the same as the one from Krasno- 

 jarsk, Siberia, without further question ; but the striking occurrence 

 of chromite in such unusual quantity in the Kiowa County mass 

 would seem sufficient to place that by itself, while leaving the close 

 resemblance between the Prehistoric and Krasnojarsk pallasites as yet 

 unexplained. 



The question naturally arises as to the possibility of the mound 

 builders having actually brought the Prehistoric specimen from Siberia 

 as a sacred object. This is scarcely probable. It is well known from 

 the writings of various authors that the inter-tribal traffic of the 



