146 ROCHESTER ACADEMY OF SCIENCE. 



holes and furrows on the brustseite of the meteorite. These basins 

 have a rough, sandy surface, not for a moment to be compared with 

 the rubbed-down, semi-polished inner wall of the air-worked hole. 

 The difference of appearance is as palpable and somewhat similar to 

 that which exists between a glaciated rock and a sawed or ground 

 rock surface. Here is again the occasion to express the opinion that 

 probably this immense and profound caverning of the lower sides of 

 the meteorite has been in some important measure determined and 

 intensified by the presence in the body of the mass of some softer and 

 more easily decomposed material. Such, too, would be, as in the 

 other case, considerable masses of troilite. Before, we invoked its 

 erosive quality; now we think of the rapid decomposition of a sulphid 

 in comparison to that of a mass of dense iron. 



This great meteorite has shown itself to be quite unique 'in 

 the distinct and esseniially diverse phenomena which it presents. 

 On one side, it offers us the greatest known instance of aerial 

 erosion, helped by fusion. No such holes and furrows due to aerial 

 attrition have been offered by any other meteorite, whether of the 

 iron or stone class. While on the opposite side it gives us a case 

 of discrete decomposition of aqueous cause, far beyond anything 

 before registered on these celestial bodies. 



It is a truly interesting thing to see these two phenomena, each 

 so potent, yet each so different in nature and in origin, connected 

 with the same mass of matter, acting upon it at two different epochs, 

 yet producing results having such general likeness in appearance. 

 In the presence of these marks of cosmic power, all other features 

 of our meteorite seem to dwindle. Even its great size loses some 

 of its impressiveness. The measures of Willamette which I have 

 given indicate its great size and give it place in this respect with, 

 the three largest meteorites known to science, a compeer of Peary's 

 Anighito and of the Bacubirito, although not of the length of the 

 latter nor of the cubic contents of either. It is interesting to note 

 that all the largest meteorites have been irons. It is doubtful 

 whether a mass of stone of such great volume could have come to 

 our earth retaining its cohesion and integrity through the destruc- 

 tive agencies attending its atmospheric passage. 



In a study made many years ago by Reichenbach in which some 

 problems of meteorite flights are elaborated, it is shown that a 

 meteorite passing with a lessened velocity of 20 miles per second 

 through our atmosphere, with its computed density at the height 



