WILLAMETTE METEORITE. 14I 



are well defined and continuous, but are shallow. They are usually 

 oval in form, with a greater diameter of from three to eight centi- 

 metres. They appear to have no distinct form or allineation ; and 

 they meet and merge into each other with but a fuller, slightly pro- 

 nounced crest between them. 



A second feature in this lower half of the great cone is the series 

 of round bore-holes, sprinkled irregularly all around it and more 

 generally near the lower border. These holes, which are so notable 

 a feature on the Caiion Diablo siderite, as also in the Tazewell and 

 in the Youndegin (Australian) masses, are here beautifully sharp and 

 well defined. They are usually nearly circular in section, one to three 

 inches in diameter, and in depth ranging from three or four inches to 

 an undefined depth. These holes, notably those of smaller diameter, 

 are sometimes materially larger in their inner portions than they are 

 at their outer orifice. This feature, observable also in the holes in 

 the Canon Diablo masses, seems to militate strongly, if not conclus- 

 ively, against any theory of their existence being caused primarily by 

 the boring action of the air in the meteorite's downward flight. They 

 are undoubtedly due to the former presence of lengthened cylindrical 

 nodules of troilites or some other sulphuret which have subsequently 

 yielded to decomposition, and have generally dropped out. An inter- 

 esting specimen in the Ward-Coonley meteorite collection is a mass, 

 some 15 inches in diameter, of Cafion Diablo iron, with such a cir- 

 cular hole ; its orifice being open, while all the lower part is occupied 

 by the still remaining troilite nodule. In our Willamette iron no 

 less than nine of these holes pierce the mass from its upper surface 

 quite through to the base below. 



The third feature of this upper (brustseite) face of the Willa- 

 mette iron is one which now makes it the most remarkable meteorite 

 known to science. This is the existence of deep, broadly open basins 

 and broad furrows or channels cutting down deeply into the mass. 

 The basins are distributed alike over the lower cone area. The fur- 

 rows reach vertically quite across this belt to the lower edge or base 

 of the mass, whose border they break with deep channelling. These 

 deep bowl-like cavities and furrows exist more upon one of the sides 

 of the meteorite (the right hand side as the mass is seen from the rear 

 in plate 14, figure 2) than upon the other. And, as fate would have it, 

 that was the side upon which the mass, tumbled from the car by 

 Hughes, lay when I visited it. But plate 14 gives a good idea of 

 the surprising size of these cavities. I was able (working from 



