14° ROCHESTER ACADEMY OF SCIENCE. 



The meteorite has thus the form of a huge abbreviated cone, 

 having its base on two sides so prolonged as to produce an oval, 

 whose long diameter is one-third greater than is its transverse 

 diameter. There are no angular outlines to the mass as a whole ; all, 

 whether in vertical or horizontal section, is bounded by broad curves. 

 At this point I may stop to say that as the meteorite lay buried in the 

 ground, its base was uppermost ; in other words, the reverse of 

 the position it held upon the car as shown in plates 13 and 14. This 

 position, with the apex of cone buried below, is unquestionably the 

 one which it held as it came through our atmosphere during its 

 immediate fall. That the great mass changed sides as it lay in the 

 ground on the flat area where it fell is not to be conceived for a 

 moment. Its front face in its flight was the apex of the cone. All 

 features of the surface harmonize with this view. The upper half of 

 this apex as shown in plates 13, 14, is devoid of any stris such as so 

 often occur on the Brustseite of a stone meteorite. Nor are there 

 here any well defined pittings. If these have ever existed, they are 

 now completely effaced. This part of the great mass seems to have 

 undergone but one change since it entered our atmosphere 

 and there met the trials of intense atmospheric friction. The denuding 

 influence of this may well be considered as having induced the gener- 

 ally round and even character of the upper cone, though no fine polish 

 or striation remains. The one effect noticeable on all this area is the 

 presence of little spots or patches from one to three or four centi- 

 metres in length, of material which seems more dense, and of a 

 faintly deeper shade of color from that of the main mass. These 

 appear over all the surface in question, sprinkled indiscriminately, 

 without order or allineation. They stand slightly elevated above the 

 surface, and might in loose terms be called scabs I am disposed 

 to think of these as representing flows of melted matter, which were 

 once more wide-spread or continuous, but now show simply as patches. 

 I will not enlarge upon this appearance, for the conditions under 

 which I saw the mass were most unfavorable.* 



Proceeding to examine the lower half of the cone, we have to 

 notice three things : First there is a large border area, a border 

 averaging eighteen or twenty inches wide, entirely around the mass, 

 which is quite covered with the pittings (Pezographs) which are so 

 common a feature on both iron and stone meteorites, These pittings 



*I may be permitted to again remind the reader that, as I saw the meteorite after it was tipped 

 off from the car, the cone end was down, and I could study it only while kneeling in the mud, 

 holding an umbrella over my head in a heavy fall of rain and sleet, and with a temperature too 

 cold to comfortably hold a pencil. The day will come when this cone— as indeed the whole 

 meteorite — will be studied under more favorable circumstances. 



