554 Dr. Walter Flight — History of Meteorites. 



Fell 1862.— Victoria West, Cape Colony, S. Africa. 1 



This mass is of interest as belonging to the very small class of 

 meteoric irons the fall of which was witnessed. It is stated to be 

 shaped like a pear, the one end being smooth and rounded, the 

 other and smaller end being jagged in a manner which indicates 

 the probability of its having been detached from a larger meteorite. 



In 1870 the mass, which weighed 6^ lbs., was sawn in two by 

 order of the authorities of the South African Museum at Cape Town, 

 and the one half further divided for distribution. 



Tschermak has already shown that the meteorites of Ilimae (see 

 page 77) and Jewell Hill (see pages 77 and 501) enclose lamella? 

 of troilite, which are situated parallel to the faces of the cube ; he 

 now finds this iron furnishes a third example of this structure. 

 The section of the iron is not only traversed by fissures, which were 

 evidently once filled with troilite and in many cases still enclose 

 traces of that mineral, but perfect plates of the sulphide are like- 

 wise observed. As in the former instances, the troilite lamella? lie 

 parallel to the faces of the cube, and are enclosed in a shell of beam- 

 iron (kamacite). The etched figures are very distinct, and nodules 

 of granular troilite are also met with. 



Dr. L. Smith also directs attention to these fissures, and finds the 

 figures developed by etching to be of that class where the lines are 

 delicate and straight, inclined at a considerable angle to each other, a 

 form common in irons rich in schreibersite. The latter mineral is 

 diffused through the iron in masses with straight boundaries, 4 in. to 

 \ in. long, and -| in. in breadth, also in much narrower and longer 

 forms, as well as in others which are triangular and arrow-shaped. 



In a drawing accompanying his paper we have an interesting 

 illustration of the specimen which he examined. In the centre of 

 the section a cavity is seen, 1^ in. in the longest and 1 in. in the 

 shortest diameter, the interior of which is also coated with a layer 

 of schreibersite -^th in. thick; the rest of this cavity is stated to be 

 filled with pyrites. In his later paper, however, the nodule is said 

 to consist of the monosulphide, troilite. In the absence of the know- 

 ledge of any test, whether with chemical reagents or with the magnet, 

 having been applied, it appears not improbable that some of the 

 elongated enclosed masses described above as schreibersite may be 

 the lamellae of sulphide which Tschermak observed. 



The specific gravity of this iron is 7-692, and the composition : 



Iron = 88-83; Nickel = 10-14; Cobalt = 0-53; Phosphorus = 0-28; 

 Copper = trace. Total = 9978. 



Found 1862— Howard Co., Indiana. 2 



This mass of meteoric iron, which weighs 4 kilog. and has an 

 irregular elongated oval form, was found in a bed of stiff clay about 

 two feet below the surface. It is one of the class of irons which is 



1 G. Tschermak. Mineralogische Mittheilungen, 1871, 109. — J. L. Smith. 

 Amer. Jour. Sc, 1873, v. 107, and 1874, vii. 394.— See also G. E. Gregory. Geol. 

 Mag. 1868, -v. 531. 



2 J. L. Smith. Amer. Jour. Sc, 1874, vii. 391. 



