Miscellaneous Intelligence. 293 



phere. The daj^ was bright and sunny, and the ship hiy becahned. The 

 whirl appeared, half a mile to a mile otf, as a very narrow column reach- 

 ing from the cloud above to the water. But as it moved, it would seem 

 to lose its hold on the waters, and disappear for want of vapor to render 

 it visible, — and then again it formed its column anew as again it reached 

 to the water^s surfece : and so it went dancing along over the ocean. 

 From this marching on of a rapidly rotating whirlwind in a calm, it 

 was evident at the time that whirlwinds were due to a motive power more 

 or less independent of the lower atmosphere around them. It was evi- 

 dent in that calm unbroken sea that corners of streets or obstacles of rocks 

 or mountains were not required to make whirlwind eddies. The small 

 whirl was manifestly a type of the great tornado, for throughout nature 

 the small and great have a common law, and the law is often best read 

 by us in the small. — j. d. d.] 



2. Examination of a Nickel Meteorite^ from Oktibbeha County^ Mis- 

 sissippi ; by Wm. J. Taylor, (Proceedings of the Acad, of Nat. Sci, of 

 Philad., April, 1S57.) — This highly interesting and unique meteorite 

 was found in an Indian mound in which excavations were being made in 

 a search for Indian antiquities, in Oktibbeha County, Mississippi. It then 

 weighed five and a quarter ounces ; in shape it resembled a hen's ^gg. 

 When found, there was a fissure which divided it almost equally into two 

 parts. The person who discovered it seeing this, placed it upon an anvil, 

 and with one blow of a sledge-hammer, divided the meteorite. One half 

 Was forged, with the intention of manufacturing it into a cutting instru- 

 ment of some description ; the other remained in its original state, ex- 

 cepting that its exterior was filed smooth and bright- 



To Dr. William Spillman, of Columbus, Mississippi, T am indebted for 

 material for this investigation ; he obtained the meteorite from the man 

 ^'ho first found it. The unforged half he brought with him on a recent 

 visit to this city, and a portion of which he has presented to the Acad- 

 emy, on the condition that it should be carefully cut, so that the surface 

 which formed one side of the existing fissure above mentioned should be 

 preserved and sent to him. It was proposed to have it cut by a lapidary, 

 but he attempted it without success, using diamond dust on the wheel. 

 On making the first incision, about one-eighth to one-sixteenth of an inch 

 in depth, he found it impossible to proceed, and refused to make farther 

 attempts to cut the meteorite. Mr. John Phillips, a fellow member of 

 the Academy, and an amateur machinist, on hearing of our difficulties, 

 kindly offered to saw the specimen, and succeeded admirably, though it 

 was with very great difficulty. He spoke of its peculiar toughness, (the 

 liardness not being excessive ;) it resisted the saw very much, which ren- 

 dered the cutting exceedingly tedious, heating the saw to such a degree 

 as to oblige a discontinuance of the operation every four or five minutes, 

 but it was remarkable that it did not dull the blade in the least. 



The toughness of the iron was clearly shown when, for the purpose of 

 analysis, it was attempted to cut off portions of it with a chisel ; the ex- 

 cessive toughness of the iron rendered this very diflScult, without the aid 

 of the saw. The resistance of this meteorite to the action of acids was 

 most remarkable. Strong nitric acid did not act upon it in the cold. 

 Moderately dilute sulphuric acid did not act upon it. Strong and boiling 

 hydrochloric acid acted upon it very gradually. 



