476 MEMOIRS NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES, VOL. XIII. 



* 



3. 1893: MEUNIEB. Revision des fers me'te'oriques, pp. 29 and 32. 



4. 1894: HUNTINOTON. The Smithville meteoric iron. Proc. Amer. Acad. Arts and Sci., vol. 29, p. 259 (chart of 



region). 



5. 1895: BREZINA. Wiener Sammlung, p. 287. 



WARRENTON. 



Warren County, Missouri. 



Latitude 38 50' N., longitude 91 1(X W. 



Stone. Omans type of crystalline chondrite (Ceo) of Brezina; Ornansite (type 46) of Meunier. 



Fell 7.15 a. m. January 3, 1877. 



Weight, about 45 kgs. (100 Ibs.). 



This meteorite was described almost wholly by Smith * as follows: 



About sunrise on January 3, 1877, 5 miles from Warrenton in the State of Missouri, latitude 38 50 7 N., longitude 

 91 10' W., a sound was heard by certain observers similar to the whistle of a distant locomotive or, as stated by others, 

 like the passage of a cannon ball through the air. The sound came from the northwest and became louder and louder 

 to four observers near Warrenton. Upon looking up they saw an object falling, which struck a tree, breaking off the 

 limbs and then coming to the ground with a crash. The observers were 50 or 60 meters distant from the spot where it 

 fell. On approaching the place they saw a mass of stone broken into a number of pieces. From the fragments they 

 suppose it to have been originally of a conical form and about 18 inches in length. The snow was melted and the frozen 

 ground thawed near where it fell, but the pieces, although warm, were easily handled. The weight was estimated to 

 have been about 100 pounds; but whether this estimate be correct or not only about 10 or 15 pounds of fragments have 

 been preserved, a good portion of which is in my possession, mostly in small fragments; some specimens are in the 

 cabinet of Yale College and others scattered about among the inhabitants of the country where it fell. 



As regards its temperature at the time of falling, I would say that I have a specimen which gives, as it were, a 

 satisfactory record that it was not very hot when it struck the tree, for a portion of the fibers of one of the branches 

 is adhering to the surface, entangled in the rough crust of the stone, and these delicate fibers show not the slightest 

 4gn of having been heated. A fact to be noted in connection with the fall of this meteorite is that no explosion was 

 heard, or any luminous phenomena produced by its passage through the air after it was first noticed; this may be in 

 part due to the fact that the fall happened at sunrise; but it was no doubt a meteorite well spent in its rapid motion 

 through the atmosphere and dropped quietly like an exhausted bird in its flight. Its direction, so far as made out, 

 was from northwest to southeast. 



Aspect of the stone. It has its own points of peculiar interest, and is not like any meteorite that I am familiar with, 

 except the Ornans meteorite, which fell July 11, 1868, and this it resembles closely in every particular, as may be seen 

 by comparing my results with those of Pisani (Comptes Rendus Acad. Sci., 1868, vol. 2, p. 663), although his method 

 of recording the analytical results is different from mine, and the specific gravity as made out by him is higher than 

 mine, which is not singular in different specimens of these porous bodies. Its crust is dull black and quite thick; in 

 many places of several centimeters square from 2.5 to 3.5 mm. thick (the thickest I have ever seen), where the cmst 

 is a rough scoria that sometimes terminates abruptly on a smooth portion of the crust, and is doubtless produced by 

 the melted matter on the surface being forced backward and opposite to the direction of the flight of the stone, being 

 swept off one portion of the surface, and leaving this part smooth and piled up behind it in the form of a surface scoria. 



The interior of the stone has a uniform dark ash color, and is soft and easily crushed; the latter fact accounts for 

 its having broken into fragments as it struck the ground. Its specific gravity is 3.47, and the amount of metallic 

 matter contained in it is small. 



Chemical composition. The stone pulverized and freed from metallic particles gave on analysis an amount of 

 sulphur equal to 3.51 per cent of troilite; the amount of nickeliferous iron was small, being equal to 2.01 per cent. 

 The stony minerals treated with hydrochloric acid gave 



Soluble in acid 80.40 



Insoluble in acid 19. 60 



composed as follows: 



Soluble. Insoluble. 



Silica 33. 02 56. 90 



Iron protoxide 37. 57 10. 20 



Alumina 0. 12 0. 20 



Lime : trace 7. 62 



Magnesia 28. 41 22. 41 



Soda 0. 07 1. 00 



Nickel oxide 1. 54 



Cobalt oxide 0. 31 



Chromium oxide 0. 33 



101. 04 97. 66 



