Description and Analysis of a Meteoric Mass. 253 
particles of the steel on the surface of the ore. Nevertheless, 
the whole is not of uniform hardness; a part, particularly the 
liver brown, being scratched by the file. 
Some small cavities in it are lined with lamellar crystals, re- 
sembling those of white pyrites. 
This hydroxide, which serves as a matrix 6f the metallic iron, 
isnot, judging from. my specimens, abundant in the interior of 
the mass, but the exterior of the mass is entirely made up of it. 
At some places it is about one inch thick, while at others it is no 
More than one quarter of an inch, showing here and -there small 
points of the metallic iron piercing through it. 
Such are the characters and appearances of this mass, of the 
date and circumstances of whose fall, nothing is known. It was 
accidentally discovered near Cosby’s creek, in the southwestern 
part of Cocke County, East 'Tennessee, and as I mentioned above, 
Was considered as silver ore. Indeed, there is yet a fragment of 
it in the hands of an inhabitant, who asks for it $1500—a sum, 
which would be some hundred dollars too much, if it were pure 
Silver, 
Chemical constituents of the different parts. 
1. Metallic Tron.—100 grains of the metallic iron were dis- 
solved in dilnted hydrochloric acid, leaving a residue of half a grain 
of a black powder, similar to that obtained from the graphite. 
This solution being treated with nitric acid, to convert the pro- 
toxide into peroxide, was precipitated by pure ammonia. The 
precipitate being washed and ignited, gave 124 grains of perox- 
ide, = 87 grains of iron. The ammoniacal solution gave 16 
grains of protoxide of nickel, = 12 grains of metallic nickel, 
With a Pine of cobalt ; sae hott a grain. 
n, - ~ = re 87.0 
ard - - - - - - 12.0 
- Carbon, - - - - - - 0.5 
Loss, - sere eB ; - 
100.0 
2. Graphite—50 grains of the graphite being pulverized and 
freed by a magnet from intermixed iron, were acted upon with 
diluted hydrochloric acid. An effervescence took place, with 
expulsion of hydrogen gas, owing to metallic iron, which was so 
intimately mixed with the graphite, that it was not attracted by 
