Report on Meteorites. 83 



On communicating a description of the mass to Dr. Hardy, he 

 replied, " I have no doubt that the specimen referred to is the 

 same which I gave Col. Nicholson. It was found at the head 

 of Swanannoah river, near the base of Black mountain, towards 

 the eastern side of Buncombe county." 



The fragment weighs only twenty-one ounces ; and, judging 

 from the size and shape of that side which still exhibits the natural 

 outside of the meteor, it is evidently a portion of a mass that must 

 have been much larger. Its texture is throughout, highly crys- 

 talline, having all the laminae (which are unusually thick) arranged 

 conformably to the octahedral faces of a single individual. These 

 layers, which commonly have a thickness of one-tenth of an 

 inch, adhere to one another with much tenacity, so as not to 

 be separable by any ordinary force. They manifest a slight ten- 

 dency however, as the result of weathering, to separate into 

 granular portions of the thickness of the layers themselves ; the 

 particles being somewhat oval in form — a result which seems to 

 Itow from the existence of very minute veins of magnetic iron- 

 pyrites : for when a surface of the iron is polished, it exhibits the 

 appearance of being mapped off into rounded patches by thin 



pyrites 



acid this 



structure is still farther developed by the corrosion of the veins. 

 Within these areas, the structure of the iron, when etched, 

 scarcely seems crystalline; at most, exhibiting a few faintly 

 marked crossing lines. A somewhat similar structure is visible 

 in the Cocke county iron. 



The mass contains several rounded and irregular nodules of 

 plumbaginous matter, (from half to one inch in diameter,) with 

 which again (and often situated in the midst of the kernels) are 

 found large pieces of foliated, magnetic iron-pyrites. In this 

 aspect also, the present iron is closely related to the Cocke 

 county iron. 



Itssp.gr. = 7-261. 



It consists of nickel, (with traces of cobalt,) . 2-52 

 Iron, . . - 1 ; 96-04 



Insoluble matter, sulphur and loss, . • 1' J l 



100 00 



17. Cocke county, Cosby' s Creek, Tennessee.— -For our earliest 

 notice of this truly wonderful locality of meteoric iron, we are 

 indebted to Dr. Tkoost, (see Vol. xxxviii, p. 250, 1840,) and 

 f or an additional account of its composition by myself, see Vol. 

 ril n, p. 354, (1842.) The history of this locality is still far- 

 ther illustrated by the following particulars, derived from two 

 ^tters from Judge Jacob Peck of Jefferson county, Tennessee, 

 the one dated July, 1845, and the other December, of the 

 same year— Extract from the former, which was addressed to 



