542 



Description and Analysis of a large mass of 



[Nov. 



Its weight, carefully taken for 

 me by Mr. Laidlay, in a good ba- 

 lance, is 1 factory maund, and 36 

 seers, or 156^ fes. English. I have 

 cut off a small piece, and Captain 

 Sherwill told me he had taken a 

 piece or two, besides the one he 

 first sent down, so that altogether 

 its original weight must have been 

 close upon 160 ibs. English. 



The weight of the Elbogen mass 

 of Meteoric Iron in the cabinet of 

 the Emperor of Austria at Vienna, 

 is 141 ibs. German, or 174 ibs, 

 English. 



III. — Internal Structure and Appearance. 



I have not yet been able to de- 

 tect in our specimen any decided 

 crystals. On one splinter I cer- 

 tainly found a crystallized facet, 

 and traces of them are to be seen 

 frequently, but nothing sufficiently 

 distinct for us to speak of it as 

 being crystallised ; however, this 

 may exist, and be partially des- 

 troyed by the violent action of 

 separating any fragments from the 

 mass. 



"When a portion of the metallic 

 part is broken or cut off, it is of a 

 bright platina-white colour, and 

 when polished and acted upon by 

 a dilute acid, it exhibits the damask 

 watering known to be a character- 

 istic of meteoric iron. Its frac- 

 ture may be called very sharply 

 uneven, and cellular, exactly resem- 

 bling that of a tough rod or bar, 

 of iron which has been torn 

 asunder ; and it almost pricks the 

 fingers upon handling it rough- 

 ly. It is full of small cellular 

 cavities, which give it almost a 

 spongy appearance in some places. 



Pallas, p. 350, says of the Sibe- 

 rian mass that, — 



The crust being taken off, the 

 rest of the mass is a soft iron, 

 white at the fractures and full of 

 holes like a coarse sponge, and he 

 goes on to describe the olivine with 

 which the cavities of it were filled. 



The Santa Rosa and other masses 

 are also described by Bossingault, 

 (Quarterly Journal Science, Vol. 

 17, p. 395,) as cellular and with- 

 out a vitreous coating — malleable, 

 of a granular structure and easily 

 giving way to the file ; of a silvery 

 aspect, and of Sp. Grav. 7.3. Ano- 

 ther mass at Santa Rosa is de- 

 scribed as cellular, very hard to the 

 file, malleable, of a silvery aspect,, 

 and of a fracture resembling tilted 

 cast steel. Another mass is said 

 to have exhibited small facets in 

 its fracture, malleable and of a sil- 

 very lustre. 



The damasking appearance is 

 stated in the Quarterly Journ. 

 Vol. 5, p. 372, (upon what autho- 

 rity is not given) to have been first 

 pointed out in Germany, and to 

 have been found in all the well 

 known specimens of meteoric iron, 

 as well as in the grains found in 

 meteoric stones, but as not to be 

 found in some of doubtful origin. 



