September 5, 1902.] 



SCIENCE. 



397 



with the great meteorite lying within. In a 

 single day we passed down through nearly four 

 feet of the soft vegetable soil, and the meteor- 

 ite began to show in its entirety. The gen- 

 eral form of the mass seen from the side waa 

 that of one ramus of a huge jaw. The sur- 

 face was entirely covered with 'pittings,' very 

 regular in size, and about two to three inches 

 across; shallow, but with well-defined walls. 

 There were no areas which showed the devas- 

 tation of deep rust; a fact due both to the 

 dryness of the soil and to the large alloy of 

 nickel in the iron. On one side there was a 

 deep crack, running horizontally through half 

 of the mass. At its inception this crack was 

 too narrow to insert a knife blade; at the 

 other end it was nearly three inches wide. 

 Our Mexicans were astonished at the result 

 of their own labors; they marveled alike at 

 the size of the mass and at our credulity in 

 believing that it had ever fallen from space 



By the end of the second day we had car- 

 ried our excavation to an average depth of 

 six feet. Over the area the vegetable soil was 

 from three to four feet deep, while below it 

 was a porphyry rock, common in this part of 

 the country, much broken up by natural cleav- 

 ages and decomposed in situ. Immediately 

 around the meteorite we had dug much lower, 

 leaving the great iron mass poised on a pillar 

 or pedestal' of the undisturbed rock. Finally 

 we performed a feat of moving the great 

 block. To lift one end with heavy tackle or 

 machinery would have been impossible for us; 

 but it needed little mechanical aid to make 

 the mass move itself. We attacked with our 

 long iron bars one side of the supporting ped- 

 estal. After long chiseling away one side of 

 this, the center of gravity was reached, and, 

 with a slow, almost dignified, movement, the 

 great meteorite sank at one end and assumed 

 a partially vertical position. Looking beneath 

 it, we found that its late bed was a clean de- 

 pression crushed into the rock, with absolutely 

 no soil between it and the mass which had 

 lain above it. It would thus seem that the 

 meteorite had fallen on the bare rock surface 

 of this district at a period before the vegetable 

 soil had begun to form here. This would be 



an interesting and astounding fact, carry- 

 ing back the fall of our meteor to a remotely 

 distant period, perhaps thousands of years. 

 But there are other conditions which would 

 need careful consideration before accepting 

 so momentous a conclusion. The wonderful 

 preservation of the mass, with its little oxida- 

 tion, and the clean, sharp-rimmed pittings 

 which cover its surface, seem to point to a 

 more modern sojourn within the destroying 

 influences of our air and moisture. We leave 

 this for further consideration. 



It is an interesting fact that this, perhaps 

 the largest and heaviest meteorite yet discov- 

 ered on our globe, should have fallen so near 

 the present borders of our country. Interest- 

 ing, too, that Mexico, with all its other extra 

 large meteorites, should have received this 

 champion mass. The extreme measures of 

 Bacubirito, for so our meteorite from the first 

 has been called, are: 



Length 13 feet and 1 inch. 



Width 6 " " 2 inches. 



Thickness 5 " " 4 " 



The form of the mass is extremely irregular, 

 and though measures have been taken around 

 the mass at many different points, its cubic 

 contents can not be calculated with more than 

 an approximation to accuracy. 



The five largest meteorites known to science 

 to-day, are: 



Bendego (Brazil) 5 1/3 tons. 



San Gregorio (Mexico) .... 11 1/2 " 



Chupaderos (Mexico) 15 2/3 " 



Anighito (Greenland) 50 " 



Bacubirito (Mexico) 50 " 



The first three are weights proven on scales. 

 The latter two are thus far simple estimates. 

 How far estimated weights, based generally 

 on simple guessing, may difPer from proven 

 weights is well illustrated by the case of 

 Chupaderos. Fletcher, the noted mineralogist 

 of the British Museum, says of it, ' According 

 to one recent estimate its weight is 15 tons, 

 according to another it is 82 tons.' Anighito, 

 the great Greenland meteorite, has been 

 guessed at all figures from 30 to 100 tons. A 

 late unofiicial estimate of it, after careful 

 measuring, puts its weight at 46 1/3 tons. 

 Should the Mexican Government, as some 



