464 W. E. Hidden — Two masses of Meteoric Iron. 



It remained there until it was sent to the Exposition at New- 

 Orleans in 1884 as a part of the South Carolina exhibit. The 

 writer is indebted to R "W. Milner, President of the Laurensville 

 Female College, for the above information, and also for the pos- 

 session of the meteorite. 



Its weight, is four pounds and eleven ounces. Its shape is 

 shown in fig. 3 which is of natural size. 



The perfection of the Widmannstatten lines, as shown in the 

 smoothed surface* of fig. 3, is unusual. Their fineness marks 

 the mass as belonging to a class of rare meteorites. 



The writer's attention was directed, at first, to the apparent 

 cuboidal aspect of this mass, and with that idea, he had the 

 panel smoothed out, as in fig. 3, merely to prove by the inter- 

 nal structure, whether or not this shape was accidental. 



The relation of the etched lines to the profile gives evidence 

 that in part, at least, the outward shape is due to a uniform 

 crystallization of the mass. The perpendicular lines are nearly 

 parallel to the two sides (this is better proved while examining 

 the mass, in hand), and agree fairly enough with the top and 



bottom sides to be con- 

 sistent with a cube. The 

 back of the mass is bluntly 

 pointed (cone shape) toward 

 the left upper side and cov- 

 ered with large depressions. 

 Wishing to further test 

 the homogeneity of the 

 mass, it was cut through at 

 the base of the cone-shaped 

 projection on the back and 

 the surface shown in fig. 4 

 developed. Here the in- 

 ternal structure is exhibited 

 even more beautifully than 

 in fig. 3, and the angles 

 are those which octahedral 

 crystallization would pre- 

 sent on a cubic face. 



All over the mass a thin 

 formation of limonite was 

 observed, this coating being much thicker over the cuboidal 

 faces than on the rough surfaces at the back. The thickness 

 of this crust is well shown by fig. 4. 



The dark rhomboidal spot near the middle of fig. 4 was 

 found to consist of solid ferrous-chloride (Lawrencite). Several 



* This surface was drilled out with a lathe, then smoothed, polished and etched 

 with diluted nitric acid. 



