REED CITY METEORITE.^ 



For the early history of this meteorite I am indebted to 

 Professor Walter B. Barrows, of the Michigan State Agricultural 

 College, and to a clipping from an article written by Professor 

 Barrows in the M. A. C. Record, published by the same institu- 

 tion. 



This meteorite, according to Professor Barrows's statement, 

 was found by Mr. Ernest Ruppert, a small farmer and junk 

 dealer, on his farm in Osceola county, near Reed City, Mich., 

 while plowing in September, 1895. Later the meteorite was 

 displayed in a hotel window in Reed City, where Professor Bar- 

 rows saw it in December, 1898, and was told there had been a 

 dispute as to the origin of the specimen, some claiming that it 

 was a meteor from the skies, others that it was a lump of ordinary 

 iron. Professor Barrows saw at a glance from its general char- 

 acter that it was a genuine meteorite and at that time made an 

 unsuccessful effort to obtain it for the college museum. Other 

 attempts were equally unsuccessful, until recently when the iron 

 was purchased by the college. 



In January of this year Professor Henry A. Ward, of Chicago, 

 visited Professor Barrows to see if he could not make arrange- 

 ments to obtain a portion of the mass for the Ward-Coonley 

 Collection of Meteorites now on deposit in the American Museum 

 of Natural History in New York. In consequence of this visit, 

 the mass was sent to Rochester, N. Y., for slicing. 



The meteorite before cutting was a semicircular or ham-shaped 

 mass 10x21 X265^'^™ in its greatest diameters. One side 

 (Fig. i) has a comparatively smooth convex surface showing no 

 distinct pittings ; the opposite side is much more irregular in 

 form, slightly concave, with three prominent and numerous 

 small characteristic pittings. On the upper edge of this face is 

 a hackly fracture oblong in shape 4^ X 10 "^"^ in diameter, where 

 a piece of less than a pound, according to Professor Barrows, 



^ Read before Rochester Academy of Science, March 9, 1903. 



230 



