480 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS [VOL. 50 



of rupture from a parent mass, nor fusion and flow structure from 

 its flight through the atmosphere. The probable significance of this 

 is mentioned later. 



Distribution of the Irons. — These irons, it should be stated, have 

 been found scattered without determinable order over an area of 

 several square miles about the crater. It is unfortunate also that the 

 even approximately exact distribution of the larger masses can not 

 be given, the collecting having been done largely by irresponsible 

 parties, who were interested merely from a commercial standpoint. 



Mr. Gilbert in 1896 1 stated that "no iron has been found within 

 the crater, but a great number of fragments were obtained from 

 the outer slopes, where they rested on the mantle of loose blocks. 

 Many others were obtained from the plain within the region of 

 scattered debris, and others, though a smaller number, from the outer 

 plain. One large piece was discovered 8 miles east of the crater, 

 or almost twice as distant as any fragments of the ejected limestone. 

 Another was long ago discovered 20 miles to the southward, but 

 what became of it is not known and it has not been definitely identi- 

 fied as a member of the same meteoric shower." 



Air. Tilghman, writing ten years later (1906), and after the work 

 of development had been some time under way, says : "In the last 

 two years the author and the men in his and Mr. Barringer's employ 

 have picked up more than 2,000 such irons, ranging in weight from 

 200 pounds down to a small fraction of an ounce, and have platted 

 the position of these finds upon a chart, which shows plainly that the 

 principal locality for such finds is in the shape of a crescent sur- 

 rounding the hole and strictly concentric therewith, and embracing 

 its edges from the northwest to the east, and having its line of 

 greatest density about midway between these two points." 



Mr. Barringer, in the same publication, states that four irons, 

 weighing from 3 to 4 pounds each, have been found on the interior 

 of the crater, and "so far as I know, these are the only iron specimens 

 which have been found inside the crater." 



It is obvious, from a consideration of these statements, that noth- 

 ing regarding the direction of the flight of the meteors can be gained 

 from a study of their present distribution, it being a well-known fact 

 that in all recorded showers the larger members have been carried 

 the farthest, so that a gradual assortment in sizes takes place along 

 the line of flight. 2 



The evidence of the crater walls, however, seems to at least sug- 



1 Op. cit, p. 16. 



' It may be well to state that a 960-pound mass in the National Museum, 

 purchased in 1893 from parties at Winslow, Arizona, was reported as having 



