348 MEMOIRS NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES, VOL. 



PERSIMMON CREEK. 



Near Hothouse, Cherokee County, North Carolina. 



Latitude 35 6' N., longitude 84 V W. (Ward). 



Iron. Granular octahedrite (Ob), Tassin; finest brecciated siliceous octahedrite (OffbP) Klein. 



Found 1893; described 1904. 



Weight, 5 kgs. (11 Ibs.). 



The meteorite was described by Tassin, 2 as follows : 



This meteorite was found on the farm of Mr. W. W. Young, on Persimmon Creek, in the southern part of Cherokee 

 County, North Carolina, in the spring of 1893. Mr. Young disposed of it to Mr. Thorn Smith, chemist of the Isabella 

 Copper Company, Isabella, Tennessee, from whom it was obtained for the U. S. National Museum. The date of ite 

 fall is unknown, but the appearance of the mass is such that it had lain in the soil a long time. 



The weight of the main mass was 9 pounds 6 ounces. From this a fragment weighing 1 pound 13 ounces had 

 previously been broken, making the entire known weight 11 pounds 3 ounces, or 5.014 kgs. 



The mass is roughly triangular in cross section, with its surface deeply indented and much oxidized, so that the 

 customary pittings are largely obliterated. 



Outwardly the mass shows no characteristics of more than ordinary interest. In the polished section, however, 

 the iron is seen to be of an unusual type. This shows it to be made up of a more or less continuous matrix of iron 

 containing troilite, schreibersite, and carbon. The troilite areas vary in their maximum diameters from 1 mm, to 

 1.5 cm. Certain of these areas contain granular carbon in such quantities that the bronze yellow of the containing 

 troilite appears only as specks through the carbon. In these graphitic areas a fairly abundant olivine is found. This 

 silicate also occurs very sparingly in the nickel iron in minute granular aggregates. Schreibersite occurs sparingly, 

 in a manner similar to the troilite. The largest of the schreibersite areas is 3 by 6 mm. along its greatest diameters, 

 and, like the troilite, it contains carbon, but does not carry olivine. This phosphide occurs also in very thin plates 

 bounding the iron masses, and between them and the troilite. It occasionally occurs in small grains or plates in the 

 iron constituent, and is then arranged in dendritic or mosslike aggregates. Schreibersite also occurs in thin plates 

 lineally arranged and resembling tsenite. 



Etching the iron constituent develops a band of bright white iron next to the troilite and schreibersite areas and 

 bounding them. This alloy may be kamacite, but it was not possible to separate any of it to determine its compo- 

 sition. On each side of and bounding the white iron is a very thin plate standing in relief, which in certain instances 

 is known to be schreibersite and in others tsenite. The mass of the iron constituent is made up of a darker colored 

 alloy or eutectic. In this eutectic are seen fine lines of a tin-white color, which are in part tsenite, and which pene- 

 trate the mass in zigzag shapes. Examined under a glass the dark iron appears to be homogeneous, and to be made up 

 of minute octahedrons arranged in fine lamellae. The eutectic or dark iron does not contain any chlorides, and the 

 very small amount of chlorides present was noted as occurring as lawrenceite between the bordering "white-iron " alloy. 

 The Persimmon Creek iron may be classed as a granular octahedrite containing numerous troilite and some silicate 

 areas. * * * 



Schreibersite is present in pealike nodules and needles (rhabdite) of a tin-white color and specific gravity of 7.17. 



It yielded 



Fe Ni+Co P 



69.33 17.26 12.50 =99.09 

 The nickel iron gave 



Fe Ni+Co P 



85.00 14.50 1.00 =100.50 



Olivine occurs in small granules of a yellowish-green color, and yielded 



Si0 2 MgO FeO 



39.10 48.20 12.30 =99.60 



Specific gravity, 3.39. 



The carbon gave no evidence under the microscope of diamond or cliftonite. 

 The portion of the meteorite soluble in acid yielded 



Fe Ni Co Cu Mn P SiO 2 A1 2 O 3 Ft Mg 



94.36 3.723 0.25 0.29 0.01 0.27 0.809 trace trace trace =99.712 



The phosphorus may have been derived from dissolved schreibersite, or from an unknown phosphide, or from 

 phosphorus in solid solution analogous to the conditions prevailing in certain manufactured irons. The silica and 

 magnesia were derived from the olivine. The platinum, alumina, and magnesia contents were too small to weigh, 

 and the first two may have been admitted during the analysis. 



An end piece weighing 193 grams is thus described by Cohen: l 



First to be noticed are numerous, frequently ragged and bent particles of troilite. They surround spangles and 

 larger grains of nickel iron, as well as jagged, black particles which appear to consist of a small-grained aggregate of 

 silicate particles with intermixed particles of troilite; a closer determination is not possible without preparation of 

 thin sections. Small particles of the questionable silicate, free from troilite, occur also, for the most part isolated in 



