410 MEMOIRS NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES, VOL. XIH. 



SENECA FALLS. 



Seneca County, New York. 



Here also Seneca River. 



Latitude 42 55' N., longitude 77 V W. 



Iron. Medium octahedrite (Om) of Brezina; Caillite (type 18) of Meunier. 



Found 1850; described 1852. 



Weight, 4 kgs. (9 Ibs.). 



The first description of this iron was given by Root, 1 as follows: 



A mass of malleable iron weighing 9 pounds was found last fall in digging a ditch on a farm near the free bridge on 

 the Cayuga side of the Seneca Eiver. It was drop-shaped, about 4 inches in diameter and 7 inches in length. When 

 found it was coated with oxide of iron. 



The surface was uneven and some of the prominent parts were terminated by planes of octahedral crystals. Through 

 the kindness of Jacob Crowningshield and Leroy Partridge, of Seneca Falls, I am in possession of a piece of the iron 

 weighing 3 pounds, being the middle section of the original specinfen. The internal structure of the mass was very 

 obvious from the lines of crystallization presented on the faces cut by the saw in dividing. After the faces were 

 smoothed and etched the figures were very distinct and beautiful, resembling those on the Texas meteorite in the Yale 

 cabinet. When filings of the faces cut were dissolved in nitric acid and the iron precipitated by ammonia the solution, 

 on adding potash, gave very manifestly the reaction of nickel, and hence the specimen is undoubtedly meteoric iron. 



It may be an interesting fact that the locality where this iron was found is only a few miles from Waterloo, in Seneca 

 County, where a meteorite fell in 1827, as has been stated by Professor Shepard. 



A complete description and analysis was given by Shepard, 2 as follows: 



This iron was very briefly announced by Prof. 0. Root, of Hamilton College, Clinton, New York. The weight of 

 the mass was between 8 and 10 pounds. It was picked up by a farmer while engaged in excavating a ditch, his attention 

 having been arrested by its unusual weight as compared with ordinary stones. A thick coating of limonite (hydrous 

 oxide of iron) formed the entire outside of the mass. Its general figure was somewhat drop shape, although the cus- 

 tomary depressions found on the surfaces of meteorites were visible also in the present instance. 



I am indebted to Professor Root for a very perfect tetrahedral fragment (of about 2 ounces weight) which must 

 have formed the little end of the meteor; and to LeRoy C. Partridge, of Seneca Falls, for a thick slice (of 4.5 ounces) 

 which, apparently, is a section across the mass next below the above. 



The broad unshaded bars, which meet at angles of 60 and 120, are quickly brought out by the acid, their own 

 surfaces not being corroded in the slightest degree by the chemical action, which is confined to the linear intervals 

 between the bars, to the triangular and rhomboidal patches, and to the borders of the very circumscribed and irregular 

 areas, situated upon a few of the bars themselves. These regions are completely covered during the operation with 

 little bubbles of nearly pure hydrogen gas. 



After the corrosion has been permitted to go on for a number of minutes the linear intervals above mentioned 

 exhibit a checked appearance as if a single row of little prisms had been inserted between the broad bars. These prisms 

 evidently consist of the same alloy as the broad pillars between which they are thrust since their tops, like the surfaces 

 of the bars, escape corrosion and are left after the action has ceased at the same level with the bars themselves. Their 

 presence, in the peculiar position they occupy, confers upon this iron a very remarkable feature, totally unlike any 

 other I have seen. Indeed in all other highly crystalline specimens we have a series of perfectly continuous lines and 

 edges in place of the checkered rows here displayed. 



The shaded triangular and rhomboidal areas, when their surfaces are well cleaned by a dilute aqua regia (and 

 polished) and examined under a lens, are seen to be finely striated with the same beaded or checkered lines as those 

 above described in the linear intervals. 



The more circumscribed areas consist of a silver-white mineral believed to be new and which will be more par- 

 ticularly described further on. This substance is not acted upon by the hydrochloric acid, but an envelope of meteoric 

 pyrites, by which it is more or less surrounded, is briskly attacked, and from these regions the odor of sulphuretted 

 hydrogen is plainly perceived. 



The want of continuity in the larger bars and their rounded terminations also serve still further to distinguish, at 

 first glance, the Seneca River iron from nearly all others. 



A solution of sulphate of copper dropped upon a moistened surface of the iron immediately gives rise to a precipitate 

 of metallic copper. It is therefore not in the passive state of the Greene County (Tennessee) iron and of some others, 

 as discovered by Wohler. 



Beneath the coating of limonite is found a very distinct layer of compact black magnetite which must have con- 

 stituted the original crust of the meteor. Its thickness in some places is 0.1 inch. The specific gravity of the iron if 

 7.337. 



It possess a medium hardness and takes a very high polish, having the customary grayish-white tint. In this 

 respect, as well as in many other particulars, it differs widely from the Burlington iron, which is remarkable for its 

 whiteness. The tendency to cleavage in the Seneca River mass is very obvious, and when torn asunder in place of 

 presenting a hackly fracture leaves surfaces with pyramidal cavities and projections. 



Analysis. The iron dissolved very slowly in cold hydrochloric acid attended by the extrication of hydrogen gas, 

 along with which sulphuretted hydrogen was occasionally evolved, as became apparent by passing the gas through a 



