90 MEMOIRS NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES, VOL. XIII. 



the fused metal has flowed and cooled so as to hang like falling water. The striae and marks of flow are around the 

 edges of the upper surface On the under side pittings are very shallow but much broader, one depression, apparently 

 made up of four pittings, being 20 cm. long and 9.5 cm. wide The whole side is coated with a black crust, 1 mm. thick 

 and having minute, round, bead-like markings On one of the indentations of the lower edge the crust has a strikingly 

 fused appearance as if a flame had been blown upon it from the other side. In reality this edge is undoubtedly the 

 place where a greater amount of fusion took place when the body was passing through the air. Seven small bead-like 

 lumps, from 5 to 10 mm. in size, which are visible on this side, are drops of metal that were entirely melted and flowed 

 and cooled so that they resemble drops of a thick liquid. There are also to be seen what appear to be cracks, 15 in 

 number, and nearly as thin as a hair. One of these is 10 cm. long and extends from the highly fused edge above men- 

 tioned toward the center. The others are from 3 to 5 cm. long. These are so evenly arranged that they are without 

 doubt ' ' Reichenbach lamellen " in which the inner troilite has been fused out. If such is the case they are as abundant 

 as in the Staunton, Virginia, iron. 



On the upper side 10 nodules of troilite are exposed, measuring from 33 mm. in diameter to 55 mm. in length 

 and 25 mm. in width. On the lower side there are 12 such nodules exposed, 13 mm. in diameter, while the largest 

 measures 19 mm. by 39 mm. On the upper side these nodules are coated in spots with a black crust similar to that 

 found on the mass, but on the lower side the crust extends completely around the side of the nodules, showing the fusion 

 very plainly. The troilite is very bright and fresh, like a newly broken mineral, and on the upper side one of the 

 nodules shows deep striation, suggesting that the entire nodule is one crystal and the exposed part is only one side of it. 

 In some cases where the nodules were broken they were found to be iridescent. 



The iron is octahedral in structure and shows the Widmannstatten figures beautifully on etching. The lamellae 

 are 1 mm. wide and the markings resemble those of the Rowton and Mazapil irons. Specific gravity, 7.773. 



Troilite is very abundant in the mass. Schreibersite and carbon have also been found between the laminae. 

 Chlorine is present only in slight quantity, as scarcely any deliquescence has been observed. 



Analysis by Whitfield: 2 



Fe Ni Co P C, S, etc. 



91.87 6.60 trace 0.41 0.54 =99.42 



From the fact that the ridged side is so free from crust and the flat side so thickly coated, that the ridged side is 

 covered with striae and marks of flowing, and that the other has so few marks of this kind, and from the fact that at the 

 edges, especially at the indentation, the back looks as though a flame had come from the other side from all these facts 

 the writer concludes that after entering our space the iron traveled with the ridge surface forward, the iron burning so 

 rapidly as to be torn off, leaving part of the surface bright. The flame thus passed over the sides, and the indented 

 edge being downward, the flame was driven upward as the iron advanced. The flat side, not being so much exposed 

 the iron was not so completely consumed, hence a crust and large but shallow pittings. These conditions would per- 

 haps have been entirely different had the mass been round or thicker, for it evidently moved as straight as possible 

 without rotating at all. That it was found in the hole with the flat side down was due perhaps to the fact that, having 

 lost its impetus, it turned in falling, or, as Professor Newton suggests, it may have been turned by striking the tree, 

 and then have fallen downward almost in a straight line. 



As the iron only penetrated to a depth of three feet (90 cm.) the earth where it struck must have been very compact 

 and the force of the body itself nearly spent. 



In the account published in the Proceedings of the U. S. National Museum, Kunz 3 repeats 

 the above version, adding extracts from local papers descriptive of the phenomena of fall. 

 Brezina * gives the following description of the mass: 



Cabin Creek, the largest of the irons whose fall has been observed, of 47.4 kg. weight, is, with exception of a small 

 corner which has been cut off, in its original form. It is highly oriented in the manner of an eccentrically embossed 

 shield. The raised front side is covered with numerous pittings, mostly 3 cm. in size, which indicate quite distinctly 

 the drift of the fine, black, shiny fusion crust, and frequently an unmelted remainder of troilite is found upon the 

 bottom of these pittings. The even, sharp-cornered rear side which borders upon the front side shows a few large 

 shallow pittings measuring 5 cm. across, a thick, dull, barklike crust, and like the front side, troilite nodules half 

 melted out. From this piece only a few small plates of some 29 grams weight were cut off. One of these showed, in 

 addition to the sharp wedgelike border of the principal mass, an unusually deep penetration of the zone of alteration 

 extending from the thick rear bark to a depth of 8 to 14 mm. This rear crust, cut diagonally in the section, appears 

 tobe 1.5 mm. wide and is laid on in layers parallel to the outer surface. The zone of alteration cuts across the unchanged 

 interior independently of the unevenesses of the outer surface in a rounded ellipse. The laminae are crowded together 

 and are somewhat puffy. Taenite is well developed, frequently running out into a substance which upon etching does 

 not show a brownish yellow color but remains silver-white. The fields are filled, sometimes with kamacitelike repeti- 

 tions of the bands, sometimes with half-blended skeletons, sometimes with dark gray plessite. 



The meteorite is preserved almost entire in the Vienna Museum collection. 



BIBLIOGRAPHY. 



1.1887: KUNZ. On the meteoric iron which fell near Cabin Creek, Johnson County, Arkansas, March 27, 1886. Amer. 

 Journ. Sci., 3d ser., vol. 33, pp. 494-499. (Illustration of the mass and two sections.) 



