314 MEMOIRS NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES, VOL. XIII. 



In my opinion this meteorite and the one we have here are fragments of another much larger one that probably 

 burst at a sufficient height from the earth to cast one piece on this hacienda, another one on that of San Gregorio, 10 

 leagues to the northwest, and other larger ones on Chupaderos, 20 leagues to the northwest of this place. 



Huntington " remarked the octahedral character of the meteorite and stated that it must 

 be placed in a different class from the Coahuila irons. 



Castillo 12 described the meteorite under the title of the Hacienda of San Gregorio. He 

 states that this hacienda is situated 13 km. northwest of the Valle de Allende. He further says: 



The form of the meteorite is nearly that of a cone 1 m. high and 1.2 m. in diameter at the base. Its density being 

 7.74, its weight becomes 11,560 kgs. Like the preceding (the Chupaderos meteorites) it is riddled with holes or cylin- 

 drical cavities, in part filled with troilite. It fell at the place called El Morito 4.5 km. from the Hacienda of San 

 Gregorio, and the proprietor in 1600?, Mr. Raphael de Pastrana, transported it to the court of this hacienda, where it is 

 to-day (1889). 



Fletcher 18 gave a full account of the mentionings of the meteorite by travelers, including 

 Humboldt. He regards it possible that it may have been the Durango mass mentioned by 

 Humboldt. He also expresses the opinion that the meteorite is of the same fall as Chupaderos 

 and Concepcion (Adargas). He also quotes from what is probably a letter from J. D. Knotts, 

 of Parral, as follows: 



Mr. J. D. Knotts, of Parral, states (1890) that, according to local traditions, the mass was moved some 130 to 140 

 years ago to the hacienda of San Gregorio from El Morito, about 2 leagues distant in an easterly direction. About 

 four or five years since it was moved by the present owner from the center to the corner of the hacienda, a distance of 

 70 feet, by 50 men with levers, in order to form part of the house. 



Meunier 14 classed the meteorite as Caillite, and described the Paris specimen as follows : 



The specimen in the museum is not perfect, it having been twisted when it was separated from the mass from 

 which it came. Nevertheless, it gives the characteristic figures of caillite. No pyrrhotine is to be seen, but schrei- 

 bersite is not rare. 



Brezina, 18 in 1895, seems to have been the first to use the name Morito for this meteorite. 

 He classed it as a medium octahedrite, and described it as follows: 



Morito (San Gregorio) is the old landmark which originally lay at El Morito, 4.5 km. from the Hacienda de San 

 Gregorio, with the date " 1600 ' ' chiseled upon it; it was then brought to the hacienda by the proprietors, 13 km. North- 

 west from the Valle de Allende, where it still lay in the year 1889. The weight has been estimated now at 800, 

 now at 250 quintals (40,000 to 12, 500 kgs.; according to Castillo 11,560 kgs.). The iron has the form of a highly oriented 

 cone 1 m. in height by 1.2 m. in basal diameter. The conical surface is covered with groovelike depressions running 

 from the apex, while the base is quite flat. Two small pieces from the Schulz collection show straight, strongly 

 bunched lamellae 0.9 mm. thick. The tsenite is scarce, fields absent, and kamacite much spotted, resembling Descu- 

 bridora, Adargas, Misteca, and Pila (Durango). It has a zone of alteration along the natural exterior surface 0.2 to 

 1.5 mm. in thickness. Fletcher seems to regard Morito as belonging with Adargas, Rio Florido, Chupaderos, Sierra 

 Blanca (Toluca), and Tule (Toluca), but I do not think this permissible. More exact analyses of the Mexican irons 

 are very much to be desired. 



The meteorite is preserved almost entire in the School of Mines of the City of Mexico. 



BIBLIOGRAPHY. 



1. 1619: Luis CABRERA DE CORDOBA. Historia de Felipe Segundo Rey de Espagna, Madrid, 1619, Lib. 13, p. 1163; 



also Edicion publicada de Real orden, Madrid, 1876-1877, vol. 2, p. 677. 



2. 1829: HARDY. Travels in the interior of Mexico in 1825-1828. London, p. 481. 



3. 1856: GERONIMO DE ZARATE SALMERON. Documentos para la Historia de Mexico, Tercera Serie, vol. 1, pp. 47-48. 



(Ordered to be published in 1629.) 



4. 1858: BURKART. Fundorte II. Neues Jahrb. Min., pp. 770, 771-772. 

 6. 1866: BURKART. Fundorte III. Idem, p. 408. 



6. 1870: BURKART. Fundorte IV. Idem, p. 690. 



7. 1871: BURKART. Briefl. Mitt. Idem, pp. 852-853. 



8. 1871: SMITH. The precise geographical position of the large masses of meteoric iron in North Mexico, with the 



description of a new mass. Amer. Journ. Sci., 3d ser., vol. 2, p. 336. 



9. 1872: URGINDI. On the Meteorites of the Hacienda "La Concepcion" and San Gregorio (extract from a letter to 



Professor Henry, etc.). Amer. Journ. Sci., 3d ser., vol. 3, p. 208. 



10. 1880: MUNOZ LUMBIER. Los Aer61itos de Chihuahua, Mexico, pp. 16, 17. 



11. 1889: HUNTINGTON. The Crystalline Structure of the Coahuila Irons. Proc. Amer. Acad. of Arts and Sci., vol. 



24, p. 35. 



