1 ^MObE^k SCIENCE READER 



that there are many circumstances which show that the 

 notion of the heavens raining diamonds is not impossible. 

 The most striking confirmation of the meteoric theory 

 comes from Arizona. Here, on a broad open plain, over 

 an area about five miles in diameter, have been scattered 

 one or two thousand masses of metallic iron, the fragments 

 varying in weight from half a ton to a fraction of an 

 ounce. There is little doubt that these masses formed part 

 of a meteoric shower, although no record exists as to when 

 the fall took place. 



Curiously enough, near the center, where most of the 

 meteorites have been found, is a crater with raised edges 

 three quarters of a mile in diameter and about six hundred 

 feet deep, bearing exactly the appearance which would be 

 produced had a mighty mass of iron struck the ground and 

 buried itself deep under the surface. Altogether, ten tons 

 of this iron have been collected and specimens of the Caiion 

 Diablo meteorite are in most collectors * cabinets. 



An ardent mineralogist, the late Dr. Foote, cutting a 

 section of this meteorite, found the tools were injured by 

 something vastly harder than metallic iron. He examined 

 the specimen chemically, and soon after announced to the 

 scientific world that the Canon Diablo meteorite contained 

 black and transparent diamonds. This startling discovery 

 was afterward verified by Professors Moissan and Freidel ; 

 and Moissan, working on a piece of the Canon Diablo 

 meteorite, has recently found smooth black diamonds and 

 transparent diamonds, in the form of octahedra with 

 rounded edges, together with green hexagonal crystals of 

 carbon silicide. The presence of carbon silicide in the 

 meteorite shows that it must, at some time, have experienced 

 the temperature of the electric furnace. 



Under atmospheric influences the iron would rapidly 

 oxidize and rust away, and the meteoric diamonds would 

 be unaffected and left on the surface of the soil, to be 

 found haphazard when oxidation had removed the last 

 proof of their celestial origin. That there are still lumps 



