76 



Report on Meteorites. 



Section 2d. Alloyed. Sub-section, closely crystalline. 



3. Babb's Mill, 10 miles north of Greenville, Green county, 

 Tennessee. — This mass was described by Dr. Troost in Vol. xlix, 

 p. 342, (1845.) Judge Peck has afforded me (under date of Dec. 

 14, 1845) some additional particulars, relating to the locality, from 

 whence he had obtained a specimen, in its natural condition. His 

 remarks are as follows : " Of the two masses found in Green coun- 

 ty, the first, as well as I can recollect, weighed twelve or thirteen 

 pounds ; the other which I have, weighs upwards of six pounds. 

 The former was injured by having been heated and cut. It ex- 

 hibited however, a crystalline structure, when small portions were 

 torn or broken asunder, though the grains were very small. It 

 was homogeneous ; and formed as malleable and tough an iron, as 

 I have ever seen. The second mass (of about six pounds) I was 

 fortunate enough to obtain, just as it was found." 



Fig. 1. 



This specimen was in the most obliging manner transferred to 

 me, in exchange, by Judge Peck ; and with the exception of a 

 few hundred grains taken from an angle, has been preserved pre- 

 cisely in its original shape. It exhibits in the most perfect man- 

 ner that peculiar moulding (consisting of somewhat irregular ba- 

 sin-shaped depressions of various sizes, connected with blunt 

 rounded angles and edges) which marks so many of these pro- 

 ductions.* A wood-cut does but inadequately render these appa- 



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* Having observed that this kind of surface occurs in masses of artificial iron, 

 both cast and malleable, if it have been a long time exposed to the action of weath- 

 er, (as in iron palings and posts, as well as in old cannon,) 1 cannot avoid attribu- 

 ting the pitted, indented outside of the meteoric irons, in part, to terrestrial influ* 



