Meteoric Iron from Tennessee and Alabama. 343 
melted. The surface alone is oxydated, resembling very much 
ordinary oxydated iron. Its interior seems to be crystallized, but 
as to the form of the crystal, I cannotsay. Its appearance is that 
of silver or polished steel, perfectly compact, and malleable to a 
great degree. It was found insulated,” &c. 
This piece was then divided, and part of it sent to Mr. Esta- 
brook and part to Judge Jacob Peck. I obtained the two pieces. 
Judge Peck wrote me,—‘‘'The piece of iron I send you from 
Green County was ploughed up in a field near Babb’s mill, 9 or 
10 miles north of Greenville. Tt had been worked for the silver it 
contained, but the artist could not separate the silver from the 
other metal; because there was none in it. 
It appears from the above information that this iron also was 
considered by its discoverer as silver, or some precious metal. It 
was therefore submitted to some operations in fire, which has more 
or less altered its surface, but I doubt very much whether it 
could have had any influence on its internal structure. Now this 
structure differs very much from that of the generality of the 
meteoric iron masses with which I am acquainted. In the letter 
above quoted, Mr. Davis says, that ‘its interior seems to be crys- 
tallized ;’ but this gentleman, as appears from his letter, having 
no mineralogical knowledge, was not well able to distinguish a 
crystalline from a coarse granular structure. 
Its internal structure is coarse granular ; its color is rather whiter 
than that of pure iron; and it is very malleable, equal if not su- 
perior in this respect, to the softest mrebught iron ; no traces of 
pyrites, or of any other heterog tances are perceptible 
in it. 
I doubted at first its meteoric origin, its fracture resembling 
that of a hard and white kind of cast iron, and its surface show- 
ing the effects of the action of fire. I submitted it therefore to 
analysis. 
42-3 grains of it gave me,— 
cent. 
Peroxide of iron, 53°18 grs. = Iron, (metallic) 2 87= ‘87° 58 
Protoxide of nickel, 525 “ = Nickel, “ 13=12-42 
Loss, i 30 
42:30 
Probably the quantity of nickel here mentioned is too great ; 
perhaps it may contain some other metallic ingredients, but the 
