IRON 



919 



great importance, in studying the production, of the ores of iron proper and in influ- 

 encing their qualities for the smelter, but the interest is only an indirect one. 



It is thought advisable in this place to describe only such native productions of iron 

 as are of some such economic value, reserving for notice under their mineralogical 

 names such as are merely interesting as minerals. 



USEFUL IKON ORES. See IRON ORES in its alphabetical place for the rare varieties. 



Native Iron. This species, which is very rare, occurs in small grains and plates, or 

 massive and disseminated. It is malleable and ductile, more so than ordinary malle- 

 able iron, and ranges in specific gravity between 7 and 7'8. It contains carbon, and 

 occasionally some other metal, but not nickel. A specimen from Gross Kamsdorf, in 

 Thuringia, analysed by Klaproth, yielded 92*5 iron, 6 lead, and 1-5 copper: its struc- 

 ture was foilated. and its texture crystalline. Native iron was found by Schreiber, in 

 a vein at Oulle, near Allemont in Dauphine. A specimen containing 91 '8 iron and 

 7'0 carbon (Shepard), was observed at Canaan in Connecticut, in a vein, two inches 

 broad, lying in mica slate ; another specimen was found in sandstone at Penn Yan, in 

 New York. John states that it is mixed with the platinum grains from South America, 

 and more recently M. Molnar has affirmed that he has found native iron in the gold 

 sands at Olahpian. Mossier has found volcanic iron in lava at Graveneire in 

 Auvergne ; it had a steel-grey or silver-white colour, foilated texture, and hackly 

 fracture ; and Dr. Andrews states that he detected native iron in grains in the basaltic 

 rock from the Giant's Causeway. These instances would seem to prove the actual 

 existence of native iron, which was for a long time disputed. 



Native Meteoric Iron. This species is distinguished from the last by containing nickel 

 and sometimes cobalt. It is very malleable, often cellular, but sometimes compact, 

 and in parallel plates which pass into rhomboids or octohedrons. When polished and 

 etched with acids, it exhibits linear and angular markings, or Widmanstatfs figures, 

 as they have been termed, and from which an impression may be printed on paper. A 

 great number of undoubted meteorites have been described and analysed. The follow- 

 ing Table from Nicol's ' Manual of Mineralogy ' exhibits the composition of some of 

 the most remarkable : 



With tin +0-04 carbon. 

 +2-30 sulphide of iron. 



With chromium. 

 With arsenic. 



The insoluble matter in the above contains in 100 parts : 



The above analyses are of : 1. A mass of 103 Ibs. weight, which fell at Bohumilitz, 

 in Bohemia, in 1829. 2. A mass weighing 1,600 Ibs., found in 1748, near Kras- 

 nojarsk, on the Yenisei. 3. The so-called ' Verwiinschte Burggraf,' from Elbogen 

 in Bohemia, which weighed 191 Ibs. 4. A mass of 71 Vienna pounds weight, which 

 fell at Hraschina, near Agram, in Croatia, on May 26, 1751. 5. A mass in the 

 Haarlem Museum, found in 1793, on the plain between the Great Fish Eiver and Graf 

 Eeynet, in the Cape Colony, originally weighing 300 Ibs. 6. Found at Lenarto, in 

 Hungary, original weight 194 Ibs. 7. From Clairborne in Alabama. 8. From Petosi. 



