D. Fisher — Meteorite from St. Croix Co., Wisconsin. 381 



cases except the one suggested above. It is true that the 

 rivers which flowed from the Appalachian plateau after the ac- 

 cumulated snows of the Glacial epoch began to melt away, 

 would vastly exceed in volume any floods with which we are 

 now acquainted, but still they would culminate far below the 

 175-foot level, and we can scarcely believe that subsequent 

 erosion has deepened the valleys so much as to make up for the 

 difference. 



"West Va. University, Morgantown, Aug. 1st, 1887. 



Art. XLI. — Description of an Iron Meteorite from St. Croix Co., 

 Wisconsin ; by Davenport Fisher. (With Plate Y.) 



The mass of meteoric iron described in this paper was 

 plowed up three years ago (1884) in a cornfield on the farm 

 of Mrs. Jenette Rattary in Hammond Township, St. Croix 

 Countv, Wisconsin. (The exact description of the forty acres 

 is :— North \ of S. W. \ of Sec. 31, Township 29, Range 17 

 West.) 



It attracted attention from its weight and-silvery luster where 

 freshly abraded, and was supposed to contain silver, but its 

 real nature was not suspected, and it lay about the farmyard 

 until last winter. At that time, during the excitement about 

 iron ores in that neighborhood, a speculator chanced to see it 

 and he at once paid fifty dollars for an option on the forty 

 acres to prospect for iron ore. The mass was sent to me for 

 analysis, and on its being reported to be a meteorite was re- 

 claimed by the owner, and it was not until I visited the region 

 in May last, that the facts of its discovery were ascertained. 



It was struck by the plow near the surface of the ground, 

 in a field that had been cultivated for corn for several succes- 

 sive years, and the farmer was quite certain that it could not 

 have been there the year before, and its fresh appearance noted 

 later, testifies to the probability of its having recently fallen. 

 It is quite remarkable that it kept so bright during the three 

 years it lay in the farmer's yard. No similar pieces have been 

 seen, nor does this show signs of fracture. 



The mass has been considerably disfigured by attempts to 

 chisel off pieces at different points, and one piece was detached 

 and forged into a spike, but this I did not see. When it 

 reached me it weighed 53 pounds (24 K.). It is of irregular 

 shape, as shown in the accompanying cut, engraved from a 

 photograph I had taken when it first reached me. 



Its dimensions are 8 by 8 inches across the face and 7 inches 



through, in the thicker part, but with an average thickness of 



Am. Jour. Sci.— Third Series, Vol. XXXIV, No. 203.— Nov., 1887. 

 25 



