MERRILL] METEOR CRATER OF CANYON DIABLO, ARIZONA 479 



which was published in both the proceedings of the Association and 

 the American Journal of Science, 1 Mr. Foote stated that, at that 

 time, nearly all of the small fragments had been found at a point 

 about 10 miles southeast from Canyon Diablo and near the base 

 of a circular elevation locally known as Crater Mountain, but 

 the origin of which he was unable to explain. Mr. Foote's interest 

 lay largely with the meteoric irons, of which he reported that over 

 137 fragments had been found, the largest of which weighed 201 

 pounds (91. 171 kilograms). He also noted the occurrence at the 

 base of the crater of many oxidized and sulphureted (sic) frag- 

 ments, some of which showed a greenish stain, resulting probably 

 from the oxidation of the nickel. This oxidized material he regarded 

 as identical with an incrustation which covered the surface of some 

 of the iron or filled the pits in the same. With the aid of analyses 

 by Dr. G. A. Konig, Foote was able to announce the iron to contain 

 (1) small diamonds, both black and white; (2) carbon in the form 

 of a pulverulent iron carbide, the precise nature of which was not 

 made out ; (3) sulphur; (4) phosphorus; (5) nickel; (6) cobalt, and 

 (7) silicon. 



Naturally this announcement was received with, great interest by 

 members of the Association and others — an interest which was kept 

 up for a long period by the rapidly accumulating evidence and final 

 proof' of the presence of minute diamond crystals in the iron, and 

 also by the large number of irons and their oxidation products sub- 

 sequently found. 



The exact number of independent masses of the iron that the 

 locality has yielded and their aggregate weight can never be 

 known, owing to the many comparatively small pieces carried 

 away by visitors or purchased from Mr. Voltz, an Indian trader in 

 the neighborhood who has made it a matter of business to search 

 for them, even hiring men and boys and plowing the ground over 

 certain areas. An estimate of the total weight, which can be con- 

 sidered little more than a guess, is 20 tons, while the numbers run 

 up into thousands, weighing from not over a gram to 460 kilograms 

 (1,013 pounds) each, the latter weight being that of the large 

 specimen in the Field Museum at Chicago. The irons are character- 

 ized by deep concave and convex surfaces and peculiar pittings or 

 holes, an inch or more in diameter, which sometimes extend through 

 the mass (see pi. lxxiii), and are commonly regarded as due to the 

 oxidation and crumbling away of nodules of iron sulphide (troilite). 

 Each iron seems to form a complete individual, with no visible signs 



1 Vol. 42, 1891, pp. 413-417. 



