NO. 2248. FAYETTE COUNTY, TEXAS, METEORITE— MERRILL. 559 



mass in contrast with the more compact exterior portion and that bor- 

 dering on the fracture lines or veinlets which traverse it in various 

 directions. All around the margin, for a width varying from 1 to 2 

 centimeters, is a zone of oxidation projecting irregularly inward, and 

 within which the stone is firm and compact, acquiring a smooth, 

 Justrous surface, and with abundant small, metallic points, mainly 

 of troilite. Each of the veinlets has a similar border varying in 

 width up to 10 millimeters. The areas between the boundary, zone 

 and the emargined veins are relatively poor in metallic constituents, 

 and filled with numerous very irregular, minute cavities. The cause 

 of these pittings can not be satisfactorily explained. They are too 

 numerous and too large to have been occupied by metal, in which, 

 in fact, the stone is poor, and indeed it would seem impossible that 

 the metal could have been removed without the sulphide also suffer- 

 ing to a greater or less extent. Neither can they be due to the partial 

 removal of the sulphide, since this mineral remains fresh and un- 

 altered in the outer zones and those bordering the veins, where it 

 would most likely be attacked. Except on the immediate weathered 

 surface this constituent remains quite untouched. The thought sug- 

 gests itself that the cavities may have been filled originally by 

 lawrencite, but the presence of so large a quantity of this mineral 

 must certainly have resulted in the complete destruction of the stone 

 when exposed to a terrestrial atmosphere. The veinlets, it may be 

 said, are filled by disconnected stringers of metal, sulphide, carbo- 

 naceous matter, and secondary iron oxide. In the slice figured there 

 is relatively a large amount of troilite as compared with nickel iron, 

 while in the Bluff stone of 1878 the reverse is true. In a section from 

 a chip of the mass in the Field Museum, which Doctor Farrington 

 has kindly furnished, this does not hold true, however. 



It remains to be noted that the 3,136-gram individual of the 1900 

 stone is more deeply oxidized than that of 1878, which may perhaps 

 mean that it has been longer exposed to terrestrial weathering and 

 inferentially belong to an earlier fall. 



The relative positions of the various finds of 1878 and 1900 are 

 shown in the accompanying chart (p. 560) prepared by Mr. Melcher 

 in 1900, but which reached my hands from Professor Charlton only 

 a few days ago. Nos. 1, 2, and 3 on the Knape, Strobel, and Sanders 

 tract represent the localities of the finds of 1900. No. 4 is the 1878 

 stone brought by Hensolt to New York, sold to Ward, and described 

 by Wliitfield and myself in 1888 under the name of Fayette (after- 

 wards changed to Bluff) County. It will be noted it is somewhat out 

 of line with the other three. The distance between Nos. 1 and 3 on 

 Mr. Melcher's drawings is given as about 2^ miles, and 1 mile from 

 2 to 4. 



