1886.] NEAV YOEK ACADEMY OF SCIENCES. 227 



from New Mexico, Arizona, and Montana, lead me to the conclu- 

 sion that these crystals are unmistakably rutile. In each one 

 hundred of the Indian garnets six were as perfect as six-rayec' 

 star sapphires (see Fig. 4). 



Mr. Kunz also read a note upon 



A METEORITE PROM CATORCE, MEXICO. 



A mass of meteoric iron, weighing ninety-four pounds, has 

 recently been sent from Catorce, State of San Luis Potosi, Mex- 

 ico. Mr. Clarence S. Bement, of Philadelphia, who recently 

 secured it, has very kindly furnished me with material for anal- 

 ysis, as well as the facts necessary for its description. He states 

 that the meteorite is an irregular and quite angular mass of iron, 

 showing no oxidation or rounding from wear. It measures thir- 

 teen and a half inches in length, eleven inches in height, and 

 seven inches in width. An interesting fact connected with this 

 meteorite is that at the smaller end a seam has been partly 

 opened, and in this is a broken chisel, made of native copper, 

 showing evidently that some aboriginal worker had tried to sever 

 part of this material, but the extreme toughness of the iron had 

 rendered it in this instance impossible. The fact that the chisel 

 is of copper is undoubtedly sufficient proof that it was not put in 

 since the white man settled in Mexico. The mass of meteoric 

 iron found by Professor F. W. Putnam at the altar of mound 

 four, Turner group, of tlie Little Miami Valley, Ohio, weighs 

 twenty-seven and a quarter ounces, is 9 cm. wide, and 8.5 cm. 

 long. From the second mound of the same group he also pro- 

 cured two small masses, roughly hammered into an ornament, 

 five inches long and three inches Avide, liaving two grooves, which 

 give it the appearance of three fingers. From here, also, were 

 procured several copper ear ornaments, covered with iron, and 

 portions of other ornaments entirely made of iron. From a 

 mound in the Liberty group he procured a celt, made of meteoric 

 iron, 5 inches long, Avith some ear ornaments. These and the 

 Catorce mass are the only known instances in North America of 

 the aboriginal use of meteoric iron. The Indians of Chili, 

 Bolivia, and Peru, howevei", made spears, knives, and other or- 

 naments and implements from the masses of meteoric iron that 

 have been found in the Atacama Desert, and the native iron found 

 in Greenland has been worked into knives by the Esquimaux. 



Mr. B. B. Chamberlin read a paper on the 



