METEORITES OF NORTH AMERICA. 25 



ALEXANDER COUNTY. 



North Carolina. 



Latitude 37 57' N., longitude 81 13' W. 



Iron. Coarse octahedrite (Og) of Brezina; Braunite (type 3) of Meunier. 



Found before 1875; described 1891. 



Weight, assignable, 206 grams. 



The first mention of this meteorite seems to have been by Venable l in his catalogue of 

 North Carolina meteorites. He gives the locality as Cedar Creek, Alexander County, and 

 states that 



This iron, weighing about 56 grams, was given by Gen. T. L. Clingman to Mr. S. C. H. Bailey, of New York, about 

 the year 1875. It has not been analyzed, nor have I been able to learn more of ita origin. The piece, Mr. Bailey 

 writes, is evidently a fragment of a larger mass, and is sufficiently characteristic to be distinguishable from any other 

 iron, though it more nearly resembles the Sarepta (Russia) iron. 



Later the iron was described by Bailey * as follows : 



This is a small piece of meteoric iron, evidently a fragment of a larger mass, found some years prior to 1875, in 

 Alexander County, N. C. Nothing more definite is known as to the date and place of its fall. 



It is rather smoothly rounded upon its broadest surface and, although wholly devoid of a proper crust, it is protected 

 from further oxidation by the change produced by weathering. The surface shows no pittings. 



Its structure is coarsely granular, or made up of polygonal fragments slightly adherent, with intervening thin films 

 of schreibersite and cracks or veins of iron oxide, cementing the mass together. Small lumps of schreibersite with 

 rounded outlines also sometimes appear. It cuts readily where free from schreibersite, takes a good polish, and is very 

 light colored; but it does not show either Neumann lines or Widmannstatten figures upon the etched surface which 

 turns black and slowly corrodes. The separate grains are quite malleable, but it is quite brittle in mass. It is probable 

 that the fragment came from near the surface of the main mass, and the deeper interior portions, which have been 

 protected from the soil and atmosphere may present different conditions. Specific gravity, 7.635. 



Analysis (Venable): 



Fe Xi Co P O (and loss) 



91.70 5.86 0.63 0.095 L 72 =100.00 



The above analysis shows that the iron is a true meteorite if the locality is in truth a dis- 

 tinct one. Brezina * marks it ' 'pseudometeorite ? " and gives 1882 as the year of find. Wulfing * 

 lists it in his appendix and gives a weight of 206 grams. 



BIBLIOGRAPHY. 



1. 1891: VENABLE. A catalogue of the meteorites of North Carolina, p. 2. 



2. 1891: BAILEY. Journ. Elisha Mitchell ScL Soc., vol. 8, pt. 1, pp. 17-19. 



3. 1895: BREZINA. "Wiener Sammlung, p. 339. 



4. 1897: WULFTSG. Die Meteoriten in Sammlungen, p. 396. 



AINSWORTH. 



Brown County, Nebraska. 



Latitude 42 33' N., longitude 99 48' W. 



Iron. Coarse octahedrite (Og) of Brezina. 



Found 1907; described 1908. 



Weight: 10.65 kgs. (23.5 Ibs.). 



This meteorite was described by Ho well 2 as follows: 



This siderite, for which I propose the name of the town near which it was found, was purchased from Mr. J. C. 

 Toliver. It was found last winter by one of Mr. W. G. Townsend's little boys, who called his father's attention to it 

 as it lay partly buried in the sand beside a small creek in Brown County, Nebraska, about 6 miles northwest of Ainsworth. 

 It measured approximately 4.5 by 6 by 7 inches, and weighed 23.5 pounds (10.65 kg.) with a specific gravity for the 

 whole mass of 7.85. Two of the projections on one side are flattened, as if by pounding, but closer examination shows 

 fine stria running evenly across both surfaces, which are in the same plane, suggesting that the meteorite in falling 

 may have glanced on a rock making a slickensided surface. The most noticeable feature, however, is the presence, 

 in a number of places on the surface, of bright unaltered troilite and schreibersite. This fact, in connection with the 

 general freshness of the mass, would indicate that the "fall" was a comparatively recent one. A fractured surface on 

 one of the sharp comers, and adjoining flat side, shows where perhaps 2 pounds had been broken from the mass antecedent 

 to its burial, probably when it fell. The fractured corner exhibits the coarse octahedral structure, while the fractured 

 side has the appearance of columnar structure, and there seems to be considerable tendency to columnar fracturing 

 at this particular part of the iron, columnar-like pieces breaking from the sections as they were cut. Eight sections 

 have been cut all parallel to the first the one figured. The principal veins and the mixed figures of troilite and schrei- 



