METEORITES OF NORTH AMERICA. 109 



CARTHAGE. 



Smith County, Tennessee. 



Here also Coney Fork, Carthago, and Karthago. 



Latitude 36 15 7 N., longitude 86 5> W. 



Iron. Medium octahedrite (Om) of Brezina; Caillite (type 18) of Meunier. 



Found 1840; described 1846. 



Weight, 127 kge. (280 Ibe.). 



This meteorite was first described by Troost. 1 He states that he obtained a piece through 

 Samuel Morgan, of Nashville, and learned from him that the mass was found in 1844, about 

 a mile from Carthage. It was thought by the finders to be silver. It was an oblong, shapeless 

 mass, its surface showing here and there some projecting octahedral crystals. Etching de- 

 veloped Widmannstatten figures. The iron was tough and malleable and contained no secondary 

 minerals. 



No further important study seems to have been made of it until 1866, when Boricky * pub- 

 lished a description and analysis, as follows : 



Study was made of a polished section in the Prag Museum, labeled Karthago, North America. The piece 

 weighed 1.8 kgs. It was covered with a limonite crust from which obscure crystal fragments projected. The crust 

 separated easily from the iron mass and pulverized to a reddish brown powder in which little angular silver-white 

 flakes [called by the author schreibereite] could be seen. Besides the iron content the powder contained oxide of 

 nickel, sulphuric acid, silica, and traces of cobalt, earthy alkalies, phosphoric acid, and chlorine. The interior of the 

 iron mass was highly crystalline, tough, and malleable. It dissolved very slowly in dilute HC1 without noticeable 

 odor. In dilute HNO 3 it dissolved rapidly. The specific gravity of two pieces gave 7.5 and 7.478. The analysis 

 gave: 



Fe Ni Co P S Si Cl X 



89.465 7.721 0.245 0.093 0.401 0.602 trace 1.192 =99.719 



X represents residue insoluble in dilute nitric acid. This consisted of silver-white flakes, a black substance (graphite), 

 and traces of silica. In another part of the residue traces of chromite were found and microscopic fragments of a white 

 transparent body. The section is cut on three sides but polished on only one face. The polished and etched sur- 

 face shows shining yellowish white lines of taenite which in some places consist of compactly arranged points and 

 inclose groups of faces mostly regularly bounded by taenite lines. Of these smaller faces, which are irregularly tri- 

 angles, rectangles, parallelograms, and trapeziums, the majority are penetrated by fine taenite lines and a few are filled 

 by a lusterless dark-brown mass which shows strong resistance to the action of acid. On the polished surface the taenite 

 lines run in four different directions and cross at angles of 90, 70, 110, and 20, while on the side faces only three 

 directions can be seen. In the fields not inclosed by taenite lines there can be seen with a lens flakes and flat grains 

 of silver-white color (schreibersite) which appear to be mingled with the groundmasa. Occasionally on the polished 

 face occur dark brown masses of irregular shape (troilite) which are generally bounded by fine taenite lines. Finally, 

 the polished face shows round and elongate depressions probably due to removed troilite. 



Brezina, 15 in his 1885 catalogue, gives the meteorite the name Coney Fork (Carthago) 

 and describes it as follows : 



Coney Fork resembles Charcas in the numerous specks of troilite, which, however, are embedded in kamacite. 

 It is finely flecked like Rancho de la Pila. The kamacite is not so distinctly bunched as in the case of the first three 

 irons of the group (Caille group), but is somewhat puffy. Bands 0.8 mm. wide. 



Huntington, 17 in his 1897 catalogue, gives the name Coney Fork, Carthage, and lists eleven 

 slabs and masses as being in the Harvard collection. The largest, weighing 9,980 grams, he 

 describes as follows: 



Large mass of cleavage octahedrons, with sharply defined faces and edges, packed together like an aggregate of 

 large crystals of alum. 



Another specimen weighing 932 grams he describes in detail as follows: 



This specimen shows six faces of a rough octahedron, one of the faces having an area of 7 square inches. One-half 

 of this octahedron has been partially torn apart into numerous smaller crystals, some of them an inch or more in diam- 

 eter; but though the crevasses between the individuals are in some places nearly a quarter of an inch in breadth, yet 

 they are bound firmly together by a network of plates, which in some parts raggedly jut out from the octahedral faces. 

 The general appearance of the exterior of the specimen reminds one somewhat of a rough mass of galena crystals, only 

 of octahedral form. The rough crystal is evidently the result of fracture, probably caused during the passage of the 

 mass through the air, and the octahedral faces are cleavage planes, if the term cleavage may be applied to such frac- 

 tures, which can not be reproduced by splitting in the ordinary way on account of the malleability of the mass. The 

 specimen further exhibits a fused crust over the octahedral faces, which must have formed after the partial breaking 



