THE SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION. 



23 



ble of receiving twice as large a surface of cases as the old Patent Office hall, and 

 three times that of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia. When 

 completely fitted, and specimens finally placed, the whole, taken together, will 

 present a most imposing appearance. 



Congress, in March, 1857, made an appropriation for the construction of suita- 

 ble cases in the Smithsonian hall to contain the collection of the South Sea Ex- 

 ploring Expedition and others belonging to the Government. These will soon 

 be transferred and appropriately arranged. The immense collection already in 

 the Smithsonian Institution, although accessible to naturalists, and in constant 

 use by them, has, for want of these cases, not been fully displayed to the 

 public. 



In the Museum hall may be seen a meteorite, the largest specimen in this 

 country next to the Texas meteorite at Yale College. 



It was brought to this country by Lieutenant Couch, of the United States 

 Army, he having obtained it at Saltillo. It was said to have come from the Sancha 

 estate, some fifty or sixty miles from Santa Rosa, in the north of Coahuila ; 

 various accounts were given of the precise locality, but none seemed very satisfac- 

 tory. When first seen by Lieutenant Couch, it was used as an anvil, and had 

 been originally intended for the Society of Geography and Statistics in the city of 

 Mexico. It is said, that where this mass was found there are many others of 

 enormous size ; but such stories, however, are to be received with many allow- 

 ances. Mr. Weidner, of the mines of Freiberg, states, that near the southwestern 

 edge of the Balson de Mapimi, on the route to the mines of Parral, there is a 

 meteorite near the road of not less than a ton weight. Lieutenant Couch also 

 states, that the intelligent, but almost unknown. Dr. Berlandier, writes in his 

 journal of the Commission of Limits, that at the hacienda of Venagas, there was 

 (1827) a piece of iron that would make a cylinder one yard in length, with a 

 diameter of ten inches. It was said to have been brought from the mountains 

 near the hacienda. It presented no crystalline structure, and was quite ductile. 



Prof. J. Lawrence Smith, of the Medical Department of the University of 

 Louisville, gives the following account of this meteorite : " It weighs 252 pounds, 

 and from several flattened places I am led to suppose that pieces have been de- 



MBTEOBITE FBOM COAHIJILA, UEZICO. 



