Description of a mass of Meteorie Iron. 351 
(To be continued.) 
Arr. XX XVIIL—Description of a mass of Meteoric Iron, dis- 
covered near Murfreesboro’, Rutherford county, Tenn. ; by 
Prof. G. Troost. 
No state in the Union seems to be so favored with aérolites as 
the state of Tennessee. The first, the explosion of which is yet 
recollected by several citizens of Nashville, fell on the 9th of 
y, 1827, near Drake creek in Sumner county—it is a stone, 
and notice was taken of it in this Journal. The second, a 
of iron, was discovered in Cocke county. The third, a mass of 
iron, in Sevier county. ‘The fourth, a mass of iron, in Dickson 
county ; the fall of this mass was witnessed by several persons 
and took place on the last of July or the first of August, 1835. 
The fifth, a mass of iron, was discovered in Dekalb county. 
The sixth, a mass of iron, in Green county. The seventh, a 
mass of iron, in Smith county. The eighth, a mass of iron, in 
Jackson county. ‘Two other masses of iron may be ranked 
amongst the Tennessee aérolites—the one was discovered a few 
miles beyond the boundary line of 'Tennessee, in Walker county, 
Alabama, and the other in Livingston county, Kentucky. Al 
these masses have been described by me in this Journal. To 
these ten aérolites, I add now an eleventh meteoric mass of iron, 
discovered a few months since, a few miles from reesboro’ 
in Rutherford county, Tennessee. 
The history of its discovery is similar to that of the generality 
of these meteorites. Nothing is known of its fall: it ‘was acci- 
dentally discovered by gold and silver hunters, and being at first 
considered as containing these precious metals, it was kept a pro- 
ound secret, till it was found out to be iron, when no difficulty 
Was made to part with it for a pecuniary consideration. When 
this discovery is made, these aérolites generally get into the 
