62 MEMOIRS NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES, VOL. XIII. 



According to Brezina 4 the ground mass is composed of rather loose, glassy; and crystalline 

 grains, somewhat similar to Lodran, with the chondri, however, remaining entirely whole. 



The most of this meteorite that is preserved is in the New York State Museum at Albany, 

 N. Y., as the present writer is informed by a letter from Director Clarke. The amount there 

 preserved is 8.2 grams. 



BIBLIOGRAPHY. 



1. 1859: WELLS. Proc. Boston Soc. Nat. Hist., vol. 7, pp. 176-179. 



2. 1860: SHEPARD. Amer. Journ. Sci., 2d ser., vol. 30, pp. 206-207. (Outline sketch of the stone of the size of a 



pigeon's egg.) 



3. 1863: BUCHNEB. Meteoriten, p. 102. 



4. 1895 BEEZINA. Wiener Sammlung, p. 259. 



BILLINGS. 



Christian County, Missouri. 



Latitude, 37 10' N.; longitude, 93 30' W. 



Iron. Coarse octahedrite (Og) of Brezina. 



Found 1903. 



Weight, 24.5 kgs. (54 Ibs.). 



This meteorite was described by Ward l as follows: 



A new siderite is now added to the six meteorites (four siderites and two aerolites) already found in the State of 

 Missouri. The mass was found on the farm of George Wolf, about 4 miles east of Billings, Christian County, southwestern 

 Missouri, in breaking new ground in September, 1903. It was taken by Mr. Wolf, who considered it an iron ore, to 

 a street fair held in Billings in the same month, where it took the first prize as iron ore. The attention of J. P. Thomas 

 was called to it, and he had a horseshoe nail made from a piece of it and a hole drilled through the edge of the mass 

 to test its quality. Mr. Thomas shipped it with a large number of specimens of iron ore to Kansas City, Missouri, where 

 it was bought by Mr. R. E. Bruner, a gentleman who possesses a fine collection of minerals. It remained in Mr. Bruner's 

 hands until I obtained it from him last November. 



In general shape the Billings siderite rudely resembles an ax or hatchet. Its extreme length is 15.25 inches; 

 its greatest breadth 8.75 inches. The thickness at the larger end is 5 inches, while from the middle the mass flattens 

 out into a blade or wedge, which is about 3 inches thick on a medium line, and slopes off to a blunt rounded edge 

 at the sides and end. This iron has evidently lain in the ground for a long time since its fall. Its outer surface is 

 rusty and covered with flaking scales of oxide. There consequently remains upon its surface no sure trace of " pitting " 

 or other aerial action incident upon its flight and fall through our atmosphere. A single circular concave depression, 

 4 inches across by 1 inch in greatest depth, on one side of the mass may be the remains of an original pitting on the 

 original surface. The weight of the mass before cutting was 54 pounds. Several slices have been made under my 

 direction which show fine Widmannstatten figures of the octahedral system. Of the structure and composition of the 

 iron alloys inducing these figures I am indebted to Prof. Oliver C. Farrington, of the Field Columbian Museum of 

 Chicago, for the remarks which follow. 



The Billings iron is a coarse octahedrite (Og), with lamellae averaging from 1 to 2 mm. in width. In length many 

 of the lamellae extend 2 mm. without interruption. They are, as a rule, comparatively straight in outline, but again 

 become irregular and swollen and at times merge into areas where then- outlines are so nearly rounded as to give a 

 coarse-granular appearance. The substance of the lamellae is sometimes interrupted and sometimes shows subdivision 

 longitudinally into narrower bands by more or less continuous films of tsenite. The kamacite is coarsely granular 

 in character and shows oriented sheen. The tsenite appears as a dark narrow line, in general bordering the kamacite, 

 but also not infrequently crossing and anastomosing. In portions of the meteorite, where some decomposition has taken 

 place, the tsenite separates out as thin, flexible, magnetic plates of a tin-white color. 



The meshes of the section occupy but small space relatively to the bands, but are well defined where they occur. 

 They range in size from about 25 sq. mm. down, and in outline from triangular to trapezoidal. They are filled with 

 a substance darker in color than the kamacite, and are traversed by irregular numbers, of delicate plates seen only 

 under the lens, which run now in one and in several directions. As a rule these plates start in great numbers from the 

 borders of the mesh and thin out toward the center, but in some of the meshes they extend uniformly across. Several 

 nodules of troilite appear in the section examined and as usual occur near its boundary. One of these nodules is irregu- 

 larly oval in shape and has a diameter of about 1 cm. The others are smaller and range in outline from nearly circular 

 to considerably elongated. None of them has a border of swathing kamacite. A line of irregular parting extends across 

 the section following roughly the lamellar planes, except at about the middle of the section, where it runs nearly straight 

 for a distance of about 2 mm. quite irrespective of the lamellar structure. The parting at this point has a width of 

 about 1 mm. and is filled with a substance of the section. This substance shows a foliated structure parallel with 

 the length of the parting, some of the foliae suggesting by their luster and color taenite, others kamacite. The struc- 

 ture is evidently secondary in character and appears to be a filling subsequent to the individualization of the main 

 mass. 



