2 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL, IIO 



in Township 15 South, Range 10 West and approximately Section 29, Millard 

 County, Utah, and, according to authorities at the Topaz camp, on public 

 domain. 



The country rock is entirely basic or basaltic lavas and there was no evidence 

 of a crater near the meteorite. The meteorite was not a recent fall, although 

 it had undoubtedly remained on the surface since its fall and the area around 

 it had been somewhat modified by erosion. From the amount of surface oxida- 

 tion and relation of the specimen to the surrounding area I should guess that 

 it fell within the last hundred years. 



There was enough of this iron projecting above ground to make it 

 conspicuous once attention was attracted to it, and the fact that when 

 Struck with a hammer it gave a clear-toned ring perhaps prompted 

 the finders to make investigation as to its nature. 



Shortly after Mr. Nishimoto received a letter from the National 

 Museum identifying the specimen as a meteorite, it was moved from 

 its resting place in the field to the Relocation Center, where it was dis- 

 played for several days prior to shipment to Washington. The moving 

 of such a heavy object required the assistance of several companions at 

 the camp as well as the use of equipment kindly lent by the camp 

 authorities. 



DESCRIPTION OF THE METEORITE 



The Drum Mountains iron weighs 1,164 pounds (529 kg.) and 

 has approximately the following dimensions: 2 feet long, 1.5 feet 

 high, and from 1.5 to 2 feet wide. Its greatest perimeter is approxi- 

 mately 7 feet and its shortest about 5 feet. It is an irregular, rounded 

 mass with few projecting points. The surface of the mass that was 

 exposed above ground has been etched by wind-blown sand and dust. 

 A delicate parallel grating of minor ridges, due to the unequal resis- 

 tance to the dust abrasion of the different component alloys making 

 up the meteorite, is a noteworthy feature of this iron. The surface 

 is well covered with broad, shallow depressions popularly known as 

 "thumb marks." However, there are other depressions that are 

 deeper and that appear to have a different origin than these shallow 

 thumb marks, which are assumed to have originated during flight. 

 There are a number of these deeper depressions scattered over the 

 surface on all sides of the meteorite. They are so irregular that ac- 

 curate measurements of their size are difficult to make, but the relative 

 dimensions of a number of them are given in table i. 



The interior of these deeper cavities is usually evenly rounded and 

 rather smooth, with a surface texture slightly different from the rest 

 of the meteorite. Perhaps this is entirely due to the lack of any 

 abrasion by the wind-blown dust, or to the fact that on the protected 



