556 Dr. Walter Flight — History of Meteorites. 



[1863.]— -South-Eastern Missouri. 1 



Shepard describes a small mass of meteoric iron originally weigh- 

 ing about 12 oz. which was found by Prof. Shumard in 1863 in the 

 collection of the old Western Academy of Sciences of St. Louis ; 

 the only locality given on the label is " S. E. Missouri." Shepard 

 finds it to resemble most closely the irons of Arva and Cocke Co. 

 The specific gravity is 7-015 — 7-112. The metal encloses so large 

 a quantity of schreibersite that after prolonged treatment with acid 

 that mineral projects in thick laminae from the surface, as mica does 

 from coarse-grained weathered granite. The intermediate areas are 

 not traversed with the delicate lines of the same substance (?) as 

 in the case of other irons. The meteorite has the following com- 

 position : 



Iron = 92-096; Nickel = 2-604; Schreibersite = 5000. Total = 99-700. 



with traces of cobalt, chromium, phosphorus, magnesium, carbon 

 and silicium. 



Found 1864. — Wairarapa Valley, Province of Wellington, New 



Zealand. 



I have to thank Dr. Hector, F.R.S., Director of the Geological 

 Survey of New Zealand, for a short account of the only meteorite 

 which has yet been found in that colony, and which is preserved in 

 the Colonial Museum at Wellington. It is in the form of an irregular 

 six-sided pyramid, 7 inches high and 6 inches across the base ; the 

 edges are rounded, and the sides slightly convex and indented with 

 shallow pits. The capacity of the stone is 49 cubic inches, the 

 weight 480 oz., and the specific gravity 3-254; the hardness 5-6. 

 It is strongly magnetic, but exhibits no decided polarity. The surface 

 is of a light rusty brown colour, and is stained with exudations of 

 iron chloride and sulphate. A freshly fractured surface is dark 

 grey, mottled with bright metal-like particles of what may be iron 

 monosulphide. By treatment with copper sulphate, the presence of 

 iron in the form of metal was determined ; with hydrochloric acid 

 sulphuretted hydrogen was evolved, sulphur set free, and a large 

 quantity of gelatinous silicic acid separated. The insoluble portion 

 consisting of silica and insoluble silicates constituted 56 - per cent, 

 of the stone. In the soluble portion the piedominating ingredients 

 were iron, amounting to 24-01 per cent, and magnesia along with 

 nickel, manganese and soda ; alumina and chromium are not present. 

 These reactions so far indicate in the New Zealand meteorite the 

 presence of olivine and an insoluble silicate, in addition to nickel- 

 iron and what may be troilite or magnetic pyrites. A short notice 

 of this stone is to be found in the Appendix A to the Jurors' Eeport 

 of the New Zealand Exhibition of 1865, p. 410. Von Haidinger 

 alludes to the circumstances attending the fall of a meteorite of this 

 date (Sitzber. Ale. Wiss. Wien, lii. 151). 



1 C. U. Shepard. Amer. Jour. Sc. f 1869, xlvii. 233. In the catalogue of the 

 Yienna Collection this iron bears the date 1864. 



