328 MEMOIRS NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES, VOL. XIII. 



NESS COUNTY. 

 Kansas. 



Latitude 38 20' N., longitude 99 37' W. 

 Stone. Brecciated intermediate chondrite (Gib) of Brezina. 

 Found 1897; described 1899. 

 Weight, many stones. 



This meteorite was first described by H. L. Ward 1 as follows: 



In October, 1899, Sam G. Sheaffer, Esq., attorney at law, of Ness City, Kansas, called our attention to a meteorite 

 that he had in his possession and which, after some correspondence, he sent to Ward's Natural Science Establishment 

 for the purpose of disposing of it. 



Mr. Sheaffer writes that "it was found about a year ago in the southwest of this, Ness County, Kansas. Was picked 

 up on the side of a draw, i. e., a dry creek, where the surface had been eroded." 



In form it is a triangular pyramid with the base set obliquely to its perpendicular. 



A mass of some weight had long ago separated from the lower left-hand corner, as seen in the figure, but whether 

 before, upon, or after reaching the earth it is now impossible to determine from the fractured part. Several slight 

 depressions appear on the surface which are rather too* sharply indicated in the accompanying figure. The edges of 

 the nearly -plane faces meet in rounded angles. 



The meteorite is 92 mm. in length. 64 mm. across its widest face, left to right of figure, and 49 mm, in thickness 

 measured perpendicularly to the widest and also largest face. The termination had been chipped away for the purpose 

 of ascertaining its meteoric character before it was sent to us. The weight of the mass is 417 grams. 



This is not a prepossessing meteorite. It entirely lacks the black crust characteristic of aerolites; and so strongly 

 suggested a weathered marcasite concretion that we were at first skeptical as to its meteoric origin. However, tests 

 for iron and for nickel were both affirmative and a polished chip showed the former well distributed as minute specks 

 through the mass. A complete analysis has not yet been made. 



To our knowledge but one other meteorite has been described from Ness County, Kansas. That is the Kansada 

 aerolite designated by the name of the town near which it was found. The locality whence came the specimen under 

 consideration, sec. 2, T. 20 S., R. 21 W., is not marked by a town and I therefore propose to designate this meteorite 

 as the Ness County. 



Subsequent to Ward's account a number of other stones were found and of these further 

 information was given by Farrington 2 as follows: 



Of this fall the Field Museum possesses one small complete individual having a weight of 85 grams. This aerolite 

 in general form is wedge-shaped with angles but little rounded. Except for one fractured surface it is covered with a 

 black crust or one which was undoubtedly originally all black, but through weathering has taken on in places a rusty 

 brown appearance. The crusted surface is smooth but uneven, the irregularities suggesting pitting, although the 

 depressions are not deep enough to produce pits of definite form. On making a section through the stone and polishing 

 the surface thus exposed the crust appears as a distinct black border having a thickness of about 0.25 mm., in contrast 

 to the dark brown color of the interior of the stone. In texture the crust does not differ noticeably from the interior, 

 the porosity of many meteorite crusts not being in evidence. The dark brown color of the interior of the stone is doubt- 

 less largely a discoloration due to weathering. So completely has this discoloration penetrated the stone that it is 

 impossible to find a place where the probable original color remains. The discoloration also makes it impossible to 

 make out much regarding the structure of the stone megascopically, chondri not being visible on a polished surface. 

 Metallic grains are numerous over the polished surface. They are for the most part of small size, the largest that I have 

 noticed not being over 1 mm. in diameter. They consist both of nickel iron and troilite, the grains of the latter being 

 distinguished by their yellow color and by not taking on a deposit of copper when immersed in copper sulphate. These 

 troilite grains are quite as numerous as the grains of nickel iron but never as large. 



In texture the stone is compact but it is only fairly coherent, breaking rather easily with a blow of a hammer. The 

 specific gravity of the whole aerolite of 74 grams, taken with the balance at 21 C., was found to be 3.504. This value 

 is of course slightly affected by the crust of the stone, but as a fragment without crust weighing 3.4 grams gave the same 

 result the error from this cause must be very small. 



Under the microscope the rock is seen to be a crystalline aggregate made up chiefly of grains of chrysolite, bronzite, 

 nickel iron, and troilite. Here and there are traces of a structure which may indicate chondri or fragments of them, but 

 such occurrences are rare. The chondruslike structures lack definite outline and if of chondritic origin can only be 

 considered fragments. One such fragment seen consists of alternate narrow lamellae, of about equal width, of chrysolite 

 and glass. In another the lamellae of chrysolite are broader and the mass has a border of chrysolite. Another suggests a 

 portion of a polysomatic chrysolite chondrus. The grain of the stone as a whole is coarse, many of the chrysolite indi- 

 viduals reaching diameters of 0.2 to 0.4 mm. These incline to a porphyritic development, although the whole rock is 

 crystalline. The chrysolite individuals are in general considerably seamed and fissured and stained brown from the 

 penetration of iron rust. Where not stained they are colorless except for scattered minute black inclusions which 

 occur in considerable quantity. They occasionally have prismatic outlines but are more often rounded or fragmental. 

 Elongated fibers alternating with glassy or half -glassy lamellae also occur as previously noted. 



