2 II. A. Ward — Colombian Meteorite Localities. 



little facettes ; the smaller, like the great Santa Rosa mass, was 

 full of recesses. 



The Rasgata meteorite was introduced into Europe in the 

 form of a 13-pound piece which was sent by Rivero to a 

 mineral collector named Heuland in London.* This piece was 

 eventually divided, and, after the year 1837, specimens of 

 meteoric iron bearing the name of Rasgata began to appear 

 in the great European collections. The name Santa Rosa did 

 not appear until 1863, when Rose used itf to designate an iron 

 in the Berlin Collection very similar in structure to the Rasgata. 



Little by little the representation of the two localities in 

 European museums grew until in 1897 Wiilfmg, in preparing 

 for his great work on meteorites,^: found a total of 9'4-±3 kilo- 

 grams of Santa Rosa and Rasgata together, recorded in the 

 great collections of the world. Some 1100 grams of this 

 bore the former name, while the remainder was considered to 

 have come from Rasgata. But no sharp line of distinction 

 was ever drawn between the'two. When they were spoken of 

 together, it was with an expression of their similarity. Indeed 

 in some few instances an indifferent interchanging of the two 

 names seems to have taken place. The same evident confu- 

 sion reigned in the minds of the authors of the rather copious 

 literature on the two meteorites. So, despairing of the suc- 

 cess of any attempt to differentiate between the irons, Wiilfmg 

 grouped them under the one general head of Rasgata. 



The authenticity of the Rasgata specimens in the various 

 museums is, for the most part, sufficiently well-established by 

 their history and identity of structure to leave no grounds for 

 reasonable doubt : but such is by no means the case with the 

 twelve or fourteen so-named Santa Rosa specimens. Of these 

 latter only some two hundred grams, which Dr. Reiss and Dr. 

 Stiibel with their own hands removed from the great Santa 

 Rosa mass as it stood once more in the market-place of the 

 village, have a history well enough substantiated to carry 

 weight. 



The first noteworthy step toward clearing away the confu- 

 sion which for many years hopelessly blended the different 

 Colombia irons was taken by Cohen. In 1895§ he distin- 

 guished three localities as follows : 



I. Santa Rosa, brecciated octahedrite. Zacatecas group (obz). 

 Represented by the great mass in the village square, and 

 by the fragments brought to Europe by Dr. Reiss and Dr. 

 Sttibel. 



* Partsch. die Meteoriten im k.k. Hof-Mineralien-Kabinette zu Wien. 

 Vienna, 1843. 



f Besclireibimg mid Eintheilimg der Meteoriten, Berlin, 1864. 



% Die Meteoriten in Sainniluiigen mid Hire Literatur, Tubingen, 1897. 



§ Annalen d. naturhist. Hofmuseunis, Wien, vol. viii, pp. 131-138. 



