i8o 



NA TURE 



[December 24, \ 



\ |One other large mass was found weighing 1 54 pounds 

 {69"853 kilos). This is also deeply pitted. A mass weighing 

 approximately 40 pounds (i8'i44 kilos) was broken in 

 pieces with a trip hammer, and it was in cutting one of 

 the fragments of this mass that diamonds were discovered 

 (Fig. 2). 



Besides these masses of considerable size a careful 

 search made by myself with the assistance of five men 

 was rewarded by the discovery of 108 smaller masses. 

 Twenty-three others were also discovered, making a total 

 of 131 small masses, ranging in weight from -^^ of an 

 ounce (i79grm.) to 6 pounds 10 ounces(3'oo6 kilos). ^ A 

 brownish-white, slightly botryoidal coating, found on a 

 number of the meteorites, is probably aragonite. 



A thorough examination of many miles of the plain 

 proved that the car-load of iron existed only in imagina- 

 tion. Accompanying the pieces found at the base of the 

 "crater" were oxidized and sulphuretted fragments which 

 a preliminary examination has shown are undoubtedly 

 of meteoric origin. About 200 pounds (90718 kilos) of 

 these were secured, from minute fragments up to 3 pounds 

 14 ounces (1757 kilos). These fragments are mostly quite 

 angular in character, and a very few show a greenish 

 stain, resulting probably from the oxidation of the nickel. 

 This oxidized material is identical in appearance with an 

 incrustation which covers some of the iron masses and 

 partially fills some of the pits. 



Compositio7i. — After obtaining the meteorite I was un- 

 able to return to Philadelphia for some time, and there- 

 fore sent a fragment of the 40-pound mass (i8"i44 kilos) 

 to Prof. G. A. Koenig for examination. Prof. Koenig was 

 compelled to leave town before this examination was 

 completed. I take the following, therefore, from his letters 

 to me, and from an account furnished the daily Public 

 Ledger by Dr. E. J. Nolan, Secretary of the Academy of 

 Sciences, of a preUminary notice made by Prof. Koenig, 

 June 23, before the Academy of Natural Sciences of 

 Philadelphia. In this account he says : — 



" In cutting the meteoric iron for study it had been 

 found of an extraordinary hardness, the section taking a 

 day and a half, and a number of chisels having been 

 destroyed in the process. When the mass, which on the 

 exterior was not distinguished from other pieces of 

 meteoric iron, was divided, it was found that the cutting 

 apparatus had fortunately gone through a cavity. In the 

 attempt to polish the surface, so as to bring out the 

 characteristic Widmannstattian figures, Dr. Koenig re- 

 <:eived word that the emery wheel in use had been 

 ruined. 



" On examination, he then found that the exposed cavi- 

 ties contained diamonds which cut through polished 

 corundum as easily as a knife will cut through gypsum. 

 The diamonds exposed were small, black, and, of course, 

 of but little commercial value, but mineralogically they 

 are of the greatest interest, the presence of such in 

 meteorites having been unknown until 1887, when two 

 Russian mineralogists discovered traces of diamond in a 

 meteoric mixture of olivine and bronzite. Granules of 

 amorphous carbon were also found in the cavity, and a 

 small quantity of this treated with acid had revealed 

 a minute white diamond of one-half a millimetre, or 

 about 1/50 of an inch in diameter. In manipulation, 

 unfortunately, this specimen was lost, but others will 

 doubtless be obtained in the course of investigation. 

 The minerals troilite and daubreelite were also found in 

 the cavities. The proportion of nickel in the general 

 mass is 3 per cent., and the speaker was not as yet able 

 to account for the extraordinary hardness apart from the 

 presence of the diamonds in the cavities." 



' October i8. — During September I received three additional large masses 

 weighing respectively 632, 506, and 145 pounds (or 286'678, 229'5i6 and 

 6s"77i kilos). The two latter were each perforated with three holes. A 

 number of smaller masses up to 7 pounds (3'i75 kilos) were discovered by 

 •digging. The three large masses and one of 23 pounds (io'432 kilos) were 

 covered with grass and earth. — ^A. E. F. 



Prof. Koenig in a letter to me gives the following 

 points as definitely known : — 



" (i) Diamonds^ black and white, established by hard- 

 ness and indifference to chemical agents. (2) Carbon in 

 the form of a pulverulent iron carbide occurring in the 

 same cavity with the diamonds. The precise nature of 

 this carbide, whether containing hydrogen and nitrogen, 

 is not ascertained, except in so far that after extracting 

 all iron by nitro-hydrochloric acid the black residue goes 

 into solution with deep brown colour upon treating it 

 with potassium or sodium hydrate. From this solution 

 acids do not precipitate anything. (3) Sulphur is not 

 contained in the tough malleable portion of the meteorite, 

 but in the pulverulent portion. (4) Phosphorus is con- 

 tained in the latter, and not in the former. (5) Nickel 

 and Cobalt in the proportion of 2 : i are contained in 

 both parts nearly equally. (7) Silicon is only present 

 in the pulverulent portion. (8) The Widmannstattian 

 figures are not regular. (9) The iron is associated with 

 a black hydroxide containing Fe, Ni, Co, P, in the ratio 

 of the metallic part, and therefore presumably derived 

 by a process of oxidation and hydration of the latter." 



Conclusiotis. — As this meteoric iron contains only 3 per 

 cent, of nickel, while that from the Santa Catarina Mount- 

 ains, 30 miles (48'28 kilometres) south-east of Tucson 

 and 215 miles (346 kilometres) from this locality, contains 

 from 8 to 9 per cent., according to the analysis of Brush 

 and Smith, they are quite distinct, although somewhat 

 alike in external appearance. They also somewhat re- 

 semble the Glorietta meteoric irons from about 300 miles 

 (482 8 kilometres) to the east-north-east, in New Mexico. 

 These contain 11 '15 per cent, of nickel. 



The most interesting feature is the discovery for the 

 first time of diamonds in meteoric iron.^ This might 

 have been predicted from the fact that all the constituents 

 of meteoric iron have been found in meteoric stones, and 

 vice versa, although in different proportions. 



The incrustation of what is probably aragonite shown 

 by some of the masses has rarely been noticed (I find 

 two records by J. Lawrence Smith which he states to be 

 unique, and both of these were from regions south of this 

 one). The incrustation is especially interesting as show- 

 ing that the meteoric irons must have been embedded a 

 long time, as the formation of aragonite would be ex- 

 ceedingly slow in this dry climate. 



The remarkable quantity of oxidized black fragmental 

 material that was found at those points where the greatest 

 number of small fragments of meteoric iron were found 

 would seem to indicate that an extraordinarily large mass 

 of probably 500 or 600 pounds (226796 or 272'i65 kilos) 

 had become oxidized while passing through the air, and 

 was so weakened in its internal structure that it had burst 

 into pieces not long before reaching the earth. 



THE SEVERE GALE OF NOVEMBER 11. 



THE storm which traversed England on November 

 II was one of the most severe of recent years. It 

 resulted in considerable loss of life and property at sea 

 on our coasts, and did a large amount of damage on 

 land. 



The weather over England at the commencement of 

 the month was dry and fine, and the conditions were those 

 known as anticyclonic, the barometer on November 5 

 having exceeded 307 inches over a great part of the United 

 Kingdom. On November 8, the type of weather became 

 cyclonic, and disturbances were skirting close to our 

 coasts from off the Atlantic, south-westerly gales being 

 experienced in the Hebrides and in the west of Ireland ; 



' Attention may be called to the discovery by Haidinger (1846) of cubic 

 crystals of a graphitic carbon in the Arva meteoric iron, and also of some- 

 what similar crystals from the Youngdegin (West Australia) iron, described 

 by Fletcher (1887) under the name of cliftonite. Both have been regarded 

 as pseudomorphs after diamond. 



NO. I 156, VOL. 45] 



