518 



Prof. Nordenshidld — Expedition to Greenland. 



up only with difficulty by long boiling in strong nitric acid or chlorate 

 of potash and hydrochloric acid. 



The following analyses have been made of this iron from Ovifak : — 

 I. Analysis of a fragment from one of the large stones, by A. E. NordenskiiJld. 



II, Analysis of a specimen of more compact iron, by Th. Nordstrom. 



III. Analysis of iron with conspicuous Widmanstattian figures from the basalt 

 ridge by 6. Lindstrom. 



Iron .., 



Nickel 



Cobalt 



Copper 



Alumina , 



Lime 



Magnesia 



Potash 



Soda -. ... 



Phosphorus 



Sulphur 



Chlorine 



Silicic acid 



Insoluble portion 



Carbon, Organic matter, \ 

 Oxygen, ami Water (loss) j 



:::} 



I. 



84-49 

 2-48 

 0-07 

 •0-27 



hardly perceptible! 



0-04 



scarcely enough 



to weigh. 



0-20 



1-52 



0-72 



scarcely perceptible 



0-05 



10vl6 



IT. 





III. 



86-34 





93-24 



1-64 





1-24 



0-35 





0-56 



0-19 





019 



0-24 







0-48 







0-29 





some traces 



0-07 





0-08 



0-14 





0-12 



fl-07 





0-03 



0-22 





1-21 



1-16 





0-16 



066 

 4-37 





1 0-59 



3-71 



■ 



C, 2-30 

 H. 0-07 



100-00 100-00 99-79 



I. Contained scarcely any traces ofsilicic acid, alumina or lime. The 

 iron was therefore entirely free from silicates, although large lumps of 

 basalt were firmly rusted on to the surface of the meteorite, and one or 

 two fragments of basalt surrounded with iron could be observed within 

 the iron near the surface. Even before heating to redness, i. emitted 

 a good deal of water and gas, as much apparently as amo^mted to 

 about 100 times the volume of the iron, — that is to say, considerably 

 more than the iron examined in Analyses i. and ii. This explains 

 the large loss in i. The specific gravity of i. was ascertained, from 

 two (porous) fragments of some grammes weight, to be 6-36 and 

 5-86. The smaller specific gravity here arises evidently from the 

 large quantity of carbonaceous matter that is contained in this iron. 

 Nordstrom obtained the specific weight of ii. from two experiments 

 on small pieces = 7-05 and 7-06. Lindstrom found the specific 

 gravity of iii. at 17° C. to be equal to 6-24. The iron employed in 

 Analysis ii. was less crystalline and more compact than that used 

 in Analysis i. It was hard to break, and small grains could be 

 hammered flat without disintegration. In Analyses ii. and iii. the 

 materials examined were in external appearance precisely alike, and I 



mentioned by Berzelius, in Afhandl. i Fysik, Kemi ocJi Miner alogi. When iron contain- 

 ing carbon is dissolved in hydrochloric acid of proper strength and temperature, 

 not only is this humus-like matter generated, but hydro-carbons also, and (according 

 to a statement made to me by Prof. Eggertz) even fluid hydro-carbons, the atomic com- 

 position of which is very complicated. We have here, then, a method for attempting 

 the synthesis of organic substances fi-om their inorganic components unemployed 

 hitherto, as far as I am aware, in synthetic organic chemistry. Iron containinrj 

 carbon was pointed out by Berzelius in 1818 (Aph. i. Fysik, Kemi, etc., vol. v. p. 534) 

 as an inorganic material which might serve as a means for the synthetical formation 

 of organic compounds. 



