METEORITES OF NORTH AMERICA. 313 



Hardy 2 described the mass as follows: 



From Real (Rio) del Parral to the hacienda of Santa Cruz is 12 leagues; 9 leagues farther on the same road is the 

 town of San Gregorio, where there is an enormous mass of iron and nickel, perhaps the meteorite which Mr. Humboldt 

 describes as being near the town of Durango. Real del Parral had formerly a population of fifty ot sixty thousand 

 souls and was very celebrated in its day, which has now gone by. Many attempts have been made to melt down this 

 mass of iron, but without success. An Italian imagined that by heating one side of it he should be able to cut off as 

 much of the metal as he wanted. Accordingly, he piled on the part where he intended to commence his operations an 

 immense quantity of wood, to which he set fire, and by dint of united blast of five or six forge bellows he succeeded in 

 giving it a red heat which indeed was so insupportable that, to his astonishment, he could not come near it. However, 

 I am told that by applying a wall of thick boards before him he succeeded in obtaining 3 pounds of iron; which 

 3 pounds cost him $130 and they were not worth $4. 



Burkart 4> 6> 6 made several inquiries for the mass, chiefly in order to determine whether it 

 was the iron referred to by Humboldt as the Durango iron. He concluded, however, that it 

 was not. In 1871 he 7 obtained a more complete description of it, which he published as follows: 

 Mr. Weidner has sent me some information regarding the iron meteorite of the Hacienda la Florida and Mr. Damm 

 some pieces of the meteorites of San Gregorio and Concepcion, obtained by Mr. Stallforth in Parral. Since these are 

 the first pieces of these which have yet been obtained in Europe I have given them to Professor Rammelsberg in the 

 hope that he will analyze the material and publish the results. With the pieces were sent some information from which 

 I draw the following: The meteoric iron of San Gregorio which W. H. Hardy saw and mentioned in his book on Mexico 

 has not been previously described nor are details given regarding its size, weight, and appearance. Also the notices 

 by Messrs. Porras and Urquidi give nothing. The former says that the mass must have fallen 7.5 leagues from the 

 hacienda of San Gregorio. No one knew when it was found, but it must have been long ago, since at the beginning of 

 the previous century the "stone of iron " laid bare by the rain was chosen as a boundary between the Villa de Alende 

 and the hacienda San Gregorio. About 50 years ago the owner of the latter brought the maas to his court and, according 

 to Hardy an Italian, and according to Porras, a blacksmith, made fruitless efforts to separate a piece by fire, in conse- 

 quence of which the well-known inscription (see below for translation) was placed upon it: 



Solo Dios con su poder 



Este fierro destruird, 



Porque en el mundo no habrd 



Quien lo puede deshacer. A 1828. 



This is on the side at present lying east. The mass has, besides a depression the size of a head in the middle, other 

 smaller ones toward the edges as if made by fingers with long nails. 



Burkart * further gives the account of Urgindi, which is quoted below. 



Fletcher 13 notes that 



Exactly the same account of revelation by a heavy rain, within a short distance from the hacienda, was given 

 for the Concepcion mass in 1871, by the actual owner and yet it is now established that the mass had been removed 

 from near Huejuquilla in 1780; there is almost exactly the same tradition relative to the attempt to cut large pieces 

 from the two masses. 



Smith 8 described it as follows: 



This immense mass of meteoric iron is situated on the western border of the Mexican desert. It measures 6 feet 6 

 inches in its greatest length, is 5 feet 6 inches in height, and 4 feet thick at its base; on one part of its surface, 1821 is 

 cut with a chisel, and above this date is the following inscription: "Only God with his power can destroy this iron, for 

 no one on the earth will % ever be able to shatter it." 



It lies within the inclosure of a hacienda, having been hauled to the ranch many years ago by the Spaniards, who 

 thought that it could be made use of as iron for farming utensils. It is said to have fallen quite near its present site 

 and from its huge bulk and weight, which is calculated at above 5 tons, it could not have been transported very far. 

 Nothing more is known of its history. 



Small specimens were detached by Doctor Butcher, one of which I have examined. I find it to be of the softer 

 meteoric irons, with a specific gravity of 7.84. The fragment I possess is too small for the study of the true character 

 of its Widmanstatten figures. Upon analysis it furnished the following composition: 



Fe Ni Co Cu P 



95.01 4.22 0.51 trace 0.08 =99.82 



Juan Urgindi, 9 in a letter to Professor Henry of the Smithsonian Institution, stated that he 

 had seen the San Gregorio meteorite twice in 1856. He further states: 



It is larger than the one at this place (Hacienda Concepcion) and seems to consist of the same material, has very 

 much the shape of a sofa, and bears an inscription which reads thus (translated): 



"Only God with his power 

 This iron will destroy, 

 For the world will have 

 No one able to divide it in pieces." 



