METEORITES OF NORTH AMERICA. 



231 



The principal village near the meteorite region is Homestead, a station on the Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific 

 Railroad about 20 miles west of Iowa City. This little station became the headquarters of the "meteor-brokers"; for 

 $2 a pound had been offered for all these stones. Enormous profits were made, creating a "meteor excitement" in the 

 region. 



Mineralogy pertaining to my chair of physical science in the Iowa State University, I felt it my duty to furnish the 

 mineralogical cabinets with good specimens of the meteorites which fell in my neighborhood. I have, through the 

 personal and financial assistance of the Hon. John P. Irish, of Iowa-City, brought together three collections, the first 

 two of which have been photographed. A subjoined cut is a copy of the photograph of the first collection. It shows 

 the general form of each of the specimens, numbered in the order of their weight. The photographs themselves, in 

 one-fifth natural size, are very excellent, permitting even a close study of the granulations and surface. The cut 

 mentioned gives the specimens in one-seventh of their natural size. 



The following catalogue gives the specimens of my collections in the order of their weight. The numbers corre- 

 spond with those on a map of Iowa township. No. on the map indicates the "Sherlock stone," the one first found: 



Weight 



in grams. 



9,500 



5,761 



4,650 



3,793 



3,620 



3,562 



3,268 



3,013 



2,856 



2,663 



2,634 



2,464 



2,274 



2,142 



2,040 



1,819 



1.545 



997 



669 



567 



560 



Presented to the mineralogical 

 museum of 



Paris. 

 London. 



St. Petersburg. 



Vienna. 



Brussels 



Copenhagen 



Haarlem 



Berlin 



Paris 



Christiania 



Stockholm 



Munich 



Lausanne 



West Point, New York 



Total. 



133 00 



60,500 



But a few days ago (on June 30) I received a dispatch from the meteorite headquarters that quite a large specimen 

 had been found. Since, an additional, somewhat smaller stone has been found on the same section of land, namely, 

 on section 30 of the township directly north of Iowa township, or about 2 miles north of the spot A in section 6 of the 

 map, but a little south of the society village called Amana von der Hohe. I have visited this place and been kindly 

 permitted to examine these truly beautiful specimens. The larger meteorite forms an irregular, rounded rhomb, 15 

 inches diagonal and 8 inches thick; it weighs 75 pounds, or 33.6 kg., and is completely covered with a black crust i.e., 

 a complete stone. The smaller meteorite forms an irregular rhomboid, the diagonals of which are 16 and 10 inches, 

 while it is 12 inches thick; it weighs 48.5 pounds, or 21.1 kg. One of its sides has but a secondary crust, so thatanother 

 piece of perhaps 20 pounds must be found in the neighborhood. The smallest complete stone is in the possession of 

 Mr. William Moerschel; it is a lenticular stone, weighing 2 ounces only. The largest stone found weighs, therefore, 624 

 times as much as the smaller. 



The two admirable specimens just described belong to the largest meteoric stones on record. The Amana Society 

 has confided these two remarkable specimens to me for study. They appear to have formed but one stone when the 

 meteor first struck our atmosphere. 



The number of meteorites thus far found in Iowa County is about 100; the total weight is over 500 pounds, 

 or 225 kg. The Iowa County meteorites are all alike, bounded by irregular plane surfaces, indicating the usual frag- 

 mentary nature of meteorites. They are all covered with a black crust, formed during the cosmical part of their motion 

 through the earth's atmosphere. This crust is not due to fusion, but simply to the heating of the outer layer of the 

 stone to a red heat, as has been proved by Meunier. Indeed, the gray mass of these meteorites turns very readily black 

 by exposure to a red heat. The surface of these meteorites shows all the ordinary impressions of meteoric stones; the 

 finger marks, granulations, ripples simulating the flow of fused matter, etc. The anterior side is, as commonly, deeper 

 black than the posterior side; the latter has the smaller finger marks. 



These meteorites are exceedingly tough, so that it is difficult to break them up; this is due to the iron grains being 

 partly connected by fibers and folia. Still, the nickeliferous iron is present in detached masses or occurs sporadically 

 in the stone. Hence these meteorites belong to the great class of "Sporadosideres" of Daubr6e. In this class Daubree 



