METEORITES OF NORTH AMERICA. 97 



Another large mass was found weighing 154 pounds also deeply pitted. A mass weighing approximately 40 pounds 

 was broken in pieces with a trip hammer, and in cutting one of the fragments of this piece diamonds were found. 

 Smaller masses to the number of 131 were discovered ranging in weight from -^y of an ounce to 6 pounds 10 ounces. A 

 brownish-white slightly botryoidal coating found on a number of meteorites is probably aragonite. Accompanying 

 the pieces found at the base of the "crater" were oxidized and sulphuretted fragments which were of undoubted 

 meteoric origin. About 200 pounds of these were secured, ranging from minute fragments up to 3 pounds. These 

 fragments were mostly quite angular in character, and a very few showed a greenish stain, resulting probably from the 

 oxidation of the nickel. This oxidized material was identical in appearance with an incrustation which covered 

 some of the iron masses and partially filled some of the pita. 



In cutting pieces of the iron for study it was found by Prof. G. A. Koenig to be of extraordinary hardness, destroying 

 several chisels and an emery wheel. A section revealed a cavity in the interior of the mass which contained small, 

 black diamonds, which cut through polished corundum as easily as a "knife cuts through gypsum." * * * Granules 

 of amorphous carbon were also found in the cavity, a small quantity of which treated with acid revealed a minute 

 white diamond of one-half mm. in diameter. In manipulation this specimen was lost. Troilite and daubreelite were 

 also found in the cavities. The proportion of nickel in the general mass was determined by Koenig as 3 per cent. 



Koenig further stated that the presence of black and white diamonds was established by the hardness and indiffer- 

 ence to acids of the specimens; that carbon in the form of a pulverulent iron carbide occurred in the same cavities 

 with the diamonds; that sulphur was not contained in the tough, malleable portion, but in the pulverulent part of the 

 meteorite; that phosphorus was contained in the latter but not in the former; nickel and cobalt in the proportion of 

 2:1 were contained in both parts equally; that silicon was only present in the pulverulent part; that the Widmann- 

 statten figures were not regular; that the iron was associated with a black hydroxide containing Fe, Ni, Co, and P, in 

 the ratio of the metallic part and therefore was presumably derived by a process of oxidation and hydration of the 

 latter. * * * 



The remarkable quantity of oxidized black fragmental material that was found at those points where the largest 

 number of small fragments of meteoric iron were found would seem to indicate that an extraordinarily large mass of 

 probably 500 or 600 pounds had become oxidized while passing through the air and was BO weakened in its internal 

 structure that it had burst into pieces not long before reaching the earth. 



The composition of some of the Canyon Diablo meteorites was studied in detail in 1893 by 

 Moissan * with results as follows: 



Among several specimens subjected to analysis there was one very important specimen weighing, it is true, only 

 4.216 grams, but presenting very distinctly a point of great hardness upon which a burr of steel made no impression 

 whatever. When closely examined this specimen showed distinctly that the fragment which scratched the steel 

 was envelopedtn a black sheath formed of carbon and carburet of iron. 



This specimen was attacked by boiling chlorhydric acid until there was no trace of iron remaining; there was 

 then obtained a compound containing: 



1. Very free carbon, in an impalpable powder, requiring 12 hours to sink to the bottm of the liquid, and which 

 probably proceeded from the attack of the carburet of iron. 



2. Carbon in very thin, ribbon-like fragments, of a maroon color under the microscope, and appearing jagged like 

 the carbon of a peculiar character which is found in crucibles upon suddenly cooling them. 



3. A dense carbon, occurring especially in rounded fragments and mixed with small particles of phosphuret of 

 iron and nickel with a reddish-brown reflection. This mixture was treated alternately by boiling sulphuric acid and 

 fluorhydric acid; its density was then sufficient for it to fall to the bottom of the iodide of methylene. 



This last residue was subjected eight times to the action of chlorate of potassium. The fragments, of a dark color, 

 d isappeared little by little at the same time that a small quantity of iron entered into solution. Finally there remained 

 only two yellowish fragments with a greasy appearance, very distinct, not possessing triangular impressions, and whose 

 rough and warped surface resembled the crystallization of boort. 



These two fragments fell to the bottom of the iodide of methylene, scratched ruby distinctly, and one of them, 

 burned in oxygen, left cinders preserving still the form of the fragment. The largest of these fragments measured 

 0.7 mm. by 0.3 mm. and possessed a yellow tint, a rough surface, and was translucent. 



In another specimen there was found, mixed with phosphurets and sulphurets of iron and nickel, a crystalline 

 substance of dendritic form of a gray color, duller than platinum, which did not disappear in the treatment with 

 fluorhydric acid and aqua regia. Some fragments of black diamond also were encountered in this specimen, with a 

 shagreened or bright surface, with a density of about 3 and burning in oxygen at 1000 C. 



There should not be confused with this certain particles of oxide of magnetic iron, incombustible in oxygen, and 

 entirely impervious to sulphuric acid, which is produced by the oxyde FejO^ obtained at a very high temperature. 



The meteorite was also found to be lacking in homogeneity. Two specimens taken from points 1 cm. apart fur- 

 nished the following figures: 



Fe Ni Silica Insoluble Mg Ca P S 



1. 91.12 3.07 0.050 1.47 traces 0.20 =95.91 



2. 95.06 5.07 0.06 =100.19 



The two specimens which contained carbon in various quantities contained no sulphur. 



716 15 7 



