340  Meteoric Iron from Tennessee and Alabama. 
Fig. 2. 
Superior surface. 
As mentioned above, the surface of the mass (when viewed 
with the naked eye) has the appearance of smooth cast iron; but 
the irregularity of this surface disappears when it is examined 
through a powerful magnifying glass. 'The whole becomes then 
a reticulated plane, formed by the edges of thin laminz of metal, 
separated from each other by an apparently semi-fused or slaggy 
matter. These lamine running in an inclined position into the 
mass, intersect one another at angles of 60°, and consequently 
forming equilateral triangles, would divide the mass into regular 
octahedrons. Fig. 3 represents this surface powerfully magnified. 
Fig. 3. 
original weight, judging from the size of the piece cut off before 
it came in my possession must have been between 9 and 10 pounds. 
Its fracture, judging from the piece that was partly cut and partly 
broken off before I got it, has the character of that of a very soft 
kind of malleable iron, showing at the same time in its jagged 
fracture some regularity of crystallization. 
