II. A. Ward — Billings Meteorite. 241 



lain in the ground for a long time since its fall. Its outer sur- 

 face is rusty and covered with flaking scales of oxide. There 

 consequently remains upon its surface no sure trace of "pit- 

 ting " or other aerial action incident upon its flight and fall 

 through our atmosphere. A single circular concave depres- 

 sion, four inches across by one inch in greatest depth, on one 

 side of the mass may be the remains of an original pitting on 

 the original surface. The weight of the mass before cutting 

 was 54 lbs. Several slices have been made under my direction 

 which show fine Widmannstatten figures of the octahedral 

 system. Of the structure and composition of the iron alloys 

 inducing these figures I am indebted to Prof. Oliver C. Far- 

 rington of the Field Columbian Museum of Chicago for the 

 remarks which follow. 



The Billings iron is a coarse octahedrite (Og), with lamellse 

 averaging from l-2 mra in width. In length many of the lam- 



Section of Billings Siderite, % s i ze - 



ellse extend 2 cm without interruption. They are as a rule com- 

 paratively straight in outline, but again become irregular and 

 swollen and at times merge into areas where their outlines are 

 so nearly rounded as to give a coarse-granular appearance. The 

 substance of the lamellae is sometimes interrupted and some- 

 times shows subdivision longitudinally into narrower bands by 

 more or less continuous films of tsenite. The kamacite is 

 coarsely granular in character, and shows oriented sheen. The 

 tsenite appears as a dark, narrow line, in general bordering the 

 kamacite, but also not infrequently crossing and anastomosing. 

 In portions of the meteorite, where some decomposition has 

 taken place, the tsenite separates out as thin, flexible, magnetic 

 plates of a tin-white color. 



The meshes (Felder) of the section occupy but small space 

 relatively to the bands (Balken) but are well defined where 

 they occur. They range in size from about 25 sq mm down, 

 and in outline from triangular to trapezoidal. They are filled 

 with a substance darker in color than the kamacite, and are 



