O. U. Shepard—Meteoric Iron from California. 469 
Art. LX.—On Meteortc Iron from Trinity County, California ; 
y CuarLes UpHAmM SHEPARD. 
For my knowledge of the meteorite here described I am in- 
debted to Col. Joseph Willcox, of Philadelphia, who incidentally 
mentioned to me last autumn that he had seen some years ago 
a metallic mass at Holmes’ Hole, Mass., brought from California, 
that he suspected to be of meteoric origin. It was in the posses- 
sion of Captain C. W. Davis, who procured it ten years ago 
at Canyon City, in Trinity County. Through the kindness of 
Mr. A. F. Crowell of Wood’s Holl, a few grams were ob- 
tained from Captain Davis for examination and analysis; the 
result of which has been that the meteoric origin, at first regar- 
ded as doubtful, has been established. 
The first portions that were detached had the appearance of 
pure limonite; but were afterwards proven to contain min- 
ute particles of nickeliferous iron, whereby small fragments 
were readily attracted by the magnet. The thickness of the 
crust affording this limonite must have been at least a tenth 
of an inch; whence it may be inferred, that the meteorite had 
originated in a very ancient fall. The specific gravity of thé 
limonite was between 3°81 and 4:04. It was compact, but 
yielded to pulverization, with exception of occasional very 
fine metallic grains, that flattened slightly by extreme pressure 
under the pestle. The application of the magnet took up 
more than half of this powder, which principally consisted 
of the limonite. It was thus found to be impossible to separate 
it from the metallic portion. An approximate separation of the 
two substances, however, was effected by HCl in the cold; an 
though the combination of them was not uniform, the nickel- 
iron was determined in one instance to be at least 10 per cent. 
Two small fragments of the nearly unaltered interior were 
supplied for analysis. In these the coarsely grained crystalli- 
zation was apparent, affording cleavable crystals of the octa- 
hedral form, similar to what is found in the Putnam Iron, 
that of Cocke County and others. The specific gravity of 
these fragments was 7‘1, which is less than the average of 
meteoric irons, a circumstance to be expected from slight ad- 
hesions of hydrated peroxide of iron. To the same reason also 
is ascribable the considerable loss in the subjoined analysis: 
POR: Mica Gewedamnr caw eeas 
ES eae iy ee 7278 
Cobalt .--.. O172 
Phosphorus. - 07120 = 96°380 
Charleston, S. C., April 16, 1885. 
