ON THE METEORITE FROM RICH MOUNTAIN, JACKSON 

 COUNTY, NORTH CAROLINA. 



By George P. Merrill, 

 with chemical analyses by Wirt T'assin, 



Of the V. S. Xatioixd Mui^emn. 



The meteoi'ite described ))elow was received at the United States 

 National Museum from Prof. H. H. Brimley, curator of the State 

 Museum at Raleigh, North Carolina. To him I am also indebted for 

 most of the information relative to its fall. 



The exact date of fall can not be given, l)ut it is stated as " about 

 the 20th of June, 1903, and 2 o'clock in the day."' Concerning- the 

 phenomena of the fall, the following is gleaned from a letter of Mr. 

 E. A. Cook, of Rich Mountain, to Mr. Brimle}-: 



"It [the meteorite] was going nearly due south; I did not see it, 

 though it passed directly over my place. It made a rumbling sound 

 something like a tornado of wind, or the pouring of water." The 

 explosion Mr. Cook compares to a "large blast,'' the first and loudest 

 being followed b}' lesser sounds, compared to the shooting of a self- 

 acting pistol. Reports from the adjacent parts of South Carolina 

 were to the effect that the passage of the stone was heard and seen 

 there, and it created great excitement. It was also seen by people 

 living 10 miles northwest of .Rich Mountain, who reported it as look- 

 ing like a ball of fire the size of a flour barrel. The single piece 

 secured (See Plate XVI) passed through the top of a green tree, cut- 

 ting off the leaves and small limbs, and struck the ground not more 

 than -10 feet from a man standing in a field, who dug it up and 

 gave it to Mr. Cook. Other fragments were reported to have been 

 found across the State line in South Carolina. Such, however, have 

 not come into the possession of the writer, nor has he been able to get 

 track of them. The single piece Avhich has thus far come to light is 

 that shown in Plate XVI, which weighed 668 grams; actual size, 122 

 mm. in length; 76 mm. in breadth by li mm. in thickness. This is 



Proceedings U. S. National Museum, Vol. XXXII— No. 1524. 

 Frof. N. M. vol. xxxii— 07 Iti 241 



