On Meteoric Iron, 81 



manufacturers of its sale, and greatly enhancing the price to con- 

 sumers of the small amount within their reach. Traders on the 

 rivers cannot transport the produce of the country, nor the mer- 

 chant receive his goods, either from up or down stream, causing 

 a great scarcity and rise in the price of groceries, especially that 

 of Orleans sugar, which has for some years past nearly supplied 

 that old fashioned, but delicious article, maple sugar. As a con- 

 sequence of the drought, there has been a rise of nearly fifty per 

 cent, on all the articles of food, or the actual necessaries of life in 

 Ohio. However trivial the subject of meteorology may appear to 

 some persons, we have practical evidence of its relation to all the 

 comforts, if not the very existence of society. A predominant di- 

 rection in the course of the winds, for several months in suc- 

 cession, may produce and has produced very serious results to a 

 whole region of country. In Ohio, nearly all our rains are 

 brought by the southeasterly, southerly, or southwesterly winds ; 

 while a dry state of the atmosphere, as generally attends the 

 westerly, northwesterly and northerly. For the last six months, 

 the prevailing winds have been from these quarters, and we can 

 safely infer that this has been a prominent cause in producing the 

 late drought. 



January 10, 1839. 



Art. YIII. — On Meteoric Iron from Ashville, Buncombe coimty^ 

 N. C; by Charles Upham Shepard, M. D., Prof, of Chem- 

 istry in the Medical College of the State of South Carolina. 



A SPECIMEN of supposed native iron was lately presented to me 

 by Dr. J. F. E. Hardy, for examination, accompanied with the 

 observation that it was not completely soluble in acids. It 

 weighed between nine and ten ounces j and had been detached 

 from a rounded mass nearly as large as a man's head, which mass 

 was found loose in the soil, about five miles west of Ashville vil- 

 lage, near the southwestern base of an elevation of land, five 

 hundred feet high. It was the opinion of Dr. Hardy that other 

 masses existed at the same place. 



The shape of the specimen in hand, evinces a distinct crystal- 

 line structure, approaching that of a flattened octahedron. Its 

 surface presents a dissected, or pitted appearance, occasioned by 

 Vol. xxsvi, No. 1.— Jan.-April, 1839. 11 



