NO. 5 



HEXAHEDRITES — HENDERSON 



27 



Although the Yarroweyah iron was found a long way from the 

 other four Australian hexahedrites, all five can be enclosed within 

 an ellipse approximately 450 miles long. There would be no reason 

 to associate the Yarroweyah iron with the Bingara group were it not 

 for the fact that the hexahedrite grouping in the other parts of the 

 world extends a similar distance. Disregarding the Yarroweyah iron, 

 the distribution of the four Bingara specimens shows that they must 

 be related. However, the ellipse enclosing all the Australian hexa- 



20» 



30" 



110" 120° 130° 140° 150 



Fig. 6. — Geographic distribution of hexahedrites in table 11. 



hedrites exceeds the area in which fragments are scattered in observed 

 falls of meteorites. 



EUROPE 



Since man used iron much earlier in Europe than in the Americas, 

 Australia, or Africa, one might suspect that many of the European 

 meteorites were transplanted or consumed by the early peoples. If 

 this is true, the listing of the specimens in table 12 and the plotting of 

 these on the map in figvire 7 may not be reliable. 



Two hexahedrites, Opava and Nenntmannsdorf, were found ap- 

 proximately 100 miles apart and close to where the Braunau mete- 

 orite fell in 1847. Since these three hexahedrites were found so close 

 together, it seems likely that they fell as a shower. 



