422 MEMOIRS NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES, VOL. XIII. 



going to the trouble of securing portions of a fall, carrying them several hundred miles across the mountains, secreting 

 them 40 or 50 years, and then making presents of them to strangers ! The only reasonable conclusion is that the 

 Smithville finds fell near Smith ville and not in a far-distant corner of the State. 



Smith. * reported 



Carbon of the character of graphite, filling irregular ovoidal cavities, like troilite, and more or less contaminated 

 with the latter mineral, are observed in this meteorite. The conversion of this meteoric graphite into graphitic oxide 

 was more rapid than that of any terrestrial graphite with which I have experimented. 



Brezina * made several observations upon different masses or sections of Smithville, as 

 follows: 



Kamacito plates 1.5 to 3 mm. in diameter have in almost every case a rib of porous schreibersite, a small quantity 

 of tsenite and plessite, the latter of a dark-gray color. Two trolite inclusions of some 3 to 4 mm. diameter have each a 

 patch of schreibersite 1.5 to 2 mm. broad, around which is an irregular envelope of kamacite. 



********* 



This meteorite is an intermediate member of the group Og. It has an oriented luster, but very slight "file 

 marks," on which account the kamacite shows at first very granular. Bands are 1.5 mm. in size. 



********* 



Under Smithville are united the irons described as Caney Fork, Caryfort (erroneously given as Caney Fork), and 

 Smithville, which agree perfectly among themselves, except for their state of preservation, of which the iron found in 

 the year 1840 is a good example, while that found in the year 1892 is decomposed throughout its entire mass. A large 

 aection of this iron, a cross section of the entire mass, shows three still preserved nodules and the remains of a fourth. 

 One of these nodules shows polyhedral boundaries and is composed of troilite, with a seam of graphite 0.5 mm. thick, 

 and a very faint corona of schreibersite; the second consists of graphite with an envelope of troilite 0.1 to 1 mm. thick 

 and a crown 1 to 2 mm. thick; the third consists of two-thirds troilite and one-third graphite with a zone of troilite 

 and an envelope of graphite 0.5 mm. thick, besides a widely radiating corona of schreibersite. 



Meunier 7 remarked regarding it as follows: 



The general characteristics of the arvaite type are exhibited in this iron with the greatest distinctness. Merely 

 by polishing the iron shows a geometrical network of bands consisting of schreibersite, and here and there very angular 

 bundles of the same phoephuret, more or less completely enveloped with graphite. The Widmannstiitten figures are 

 very like those of the Brazos iron. The kamacite has practically the same form; yet a great abundance of tsenite is 

 noticeable, which not only forms the filaments between the elements of the preceding alloy, but also constitutes the 

 grills in the triangular and rhombic intervals between them. 



The Smithville meteorite is distributed, Harvard and Ward possessing the largest pieces. 



BIBLIOGRAPHY. 



1. 1840: TROOST. Description and analysis, etc., Cocke County meteorite. Amer. Journ. Sci., Istser., vol. 38, p. 254. 



2. 1845: TROOST. Description of a mass of meteoric iron discovered in De Kalb County, Tennessee. Amer. Journ. 



Sci., Istser., vol. 49, pp. 341-342. 



3. 1858-1862: VON REIOHBNBACH. No. 4, p. 638; No. 6, p. 452; No. 7, p. 551; No. 8, p. 488; No. 9, pp. 162, 175, 176, 



and 182; No. 12, p. 457; No. 13, pp. 363 and 364; No. 14, p. 390; No. 15, pp. 100, 111, and 128; No. 16, pp. 261 

 and 262; No. 17, p. 273; No. 18, pp. 484, 487, and 489; No. 20, pp. 621, 625, 629, 631, and 634; No. 21, pp. 578, 

 579, 580, and 586. 



4. 1876: SMITH. Carbon compounds. Amer. Journ. Sci., 3d ser., vol. 11, pp. 392, 394, and 434. 



5. 1885: BREZINA. Wiener Sammlung, pp. 215, 216, and 234. 



6. 1886: HUNTINGTON. Crystalline structure. Amer. Journ. Sci., 3d ser., vol. 32, pp. 287 and 288. (Illustration of 



etching.) 



7. 1893: MEUNIEB. Bemarques geologiques sur les fers m&eoriques diamantiferes. Comptes Rendus, Tome 116, 



p. 410. 



8. 1893: METJNIBR. Revision des fers me'te'oriques, pp. 29 and 31-32. 



9. 1894: HUNTINGTON. The Smithville meteoric iron. Proc. Amer. Acad. Arts and Sci., vol. 29, pp. 251-260. 



(Analysis, illustration of mass weighing 65 pounds found in 1893; and illustration of etching, and map of region.) 



10. 1895: BRKZINA. Wiener Sammlung, pp. 285-286. 



11. 1904: GLENN. Amer. Journ. Sci., 4th ser., vol. 17, p. 216. 



