N0.1273. A NEW METEORITE FROM KANSAS— MERRILL. 909 
are plainly portions of the same crystal, but slightly separated and 
with almost identical optical orientation, are seen with thin veinlets of 
iron or schreibersitc traversing the fracture lines, as shown in Plate 
Liy. 1 can not discover that there exists an}^ constant proportional 
relationship between these two minerals, although the iron is by far 
the more abundant, and the schreibersitc, while sometimes in thin 
plates, is also present in granular forms. 
The metallic minerals often occur associated in a peculiarly sug- 
gestive manner. This may be best understood bv reference to Plate 
LV. which is from a photographic enlargement of about live diame- 
ters. The broad, white outer band (1) is of nickeliferous iron. 
Inside this is a dark area (3) interspersed with iron in the form of 
rounded blebs and dashes. Between the iron and the dark interiors 
are always thin metallic plates (2), at first thought suggestive of 
ta?nite, but which chemical tests have shown to be invariably schrei- 
bersitc. They do not show in the illustration, though ver}^ evident on 
a polished surface. The gray interior matter is not in all cases homo- 
geneous. When subjected to friction the outer portions — white in 
the figure — quickly take a highly lustrous, fairly lasting polish. 
The interiors come up more slowly, are less lustrous, often showing 
under the glass a surface of minute metallic points interspersed with 
others without Itister — that is, which take no polish, indicating a lack 
of homogeneity in the material. Often a central portion of the area 
has seemed to be more compact and more homogeneous than that 
nearer the margins, though one portion grades into another without 
sharp lines of separation. (See Plate LI, fig. 2-a.) 
On exposure some of these areas quickly tarnish, while others hold 
their dull polish for a considerable length of time. Those which 
tarnish most quickly exude a greenish material, which reacts for 
chlorine, and which, when washed away, leaves the iron beneath of a 
dull black color and pitted. The conclusion is inevitable that in such 
cases the material is a spongy mass of metallic iron and iron chloride, 
presumably lawrencite. Other portions, again, seem to be like 
spongy mixtures of iron and iron sulphide, and still others nearly 
pure iron. 
Attention should here be called to the spicules of iron (4 on 
Plate LV) which are seen extending from points of attachment on the 
white metallic portion inward and in some cases nearly across this 
gra}' interior area, which has been described as composed in part of 
lawrencite. These spicules have all the appearances of incipient stages 
of crystallization where the process has been arrested before comple- 
tion. They resemble greatly in their general appearance frost cr^^stals 
which are to be seen upon the windowpane in cold weather, or acicular 
cr3'stals forming on the surface of pools of quiet water. 
The iron on etching, it should be stated, does not yield the Wid- 
