398 Foole — New Meteoric Iron from West Australia. 



The nearest known geographical neighbor among irons is 

 the Roebourne, found in 1894 two hundred miles southeast of 

 the town of Eoebourne and twenty miles from the Hammersley 

 Range, 118° E., 22° 20' S. This place is about 100 miles east 

 of Mount Edith. Their points of difference are numerous and 

 fully differentiate the two falls. While a medium octahedrite, 

 Roebonrue's figures are much dimmed by a schiller-like or 

 flaky structure. It contains few troilite nodules and these are 

 smaller than in Mount Edith. Roebourne contains little 

 schreibersite and also carries P12 per cent less nickel and 1'414 

 per cent more iron than Mount Edith. The Ballinoo iron, 

 found 300 miles to the south, has only - 6 per cent less nickel 

 and 0*4 per cent more iron than Mount Edith, but is totally 

 unlike the latter in other respects. Ballinoo is one of the 

 finest octahedrites, the figures being barely visible. 



An analysis of the Mount Edith iron was made by Mr. J. 

 Edward Whitfield of the firm of Booth, Garrett & Blair, 

 Philadelphia. Their report follows : 



Iron (direct) S9 500$ 



Nickel.- 9-450 



Cobalt 0-625 



Phosphorus .. 0*316 



Carbon 0-017 



Copper 0-013 



Silicon - 005 



Sulphur., 005 



Manganese none 



99-931 



Included minerals were avoided as much as possible, and 

 only clean drillings of the iron used for analysis. The material 

 insoluble in hydrochloric acid amounts to P115 per cent. Con- 

 sidering the entire content of phosphorus as composing schrei- 

 bersite, this would indicate that 2 - 10 per cent of this mineral 

 was present in the iron. The specific gravity is 7*86. 



Some six months previously, Mr. Edward I. Simpson, 

 Chemist in the Laboratory of the Geological Survey of West 

 Australia, reported the Mount Edith iron as containing 9*45 

 per cent nickel. This complete agreement with Mr. Whit- 

 field's later analysis tends to show the uniform constitution of 

 the mass throughout, as the sampling was done at different 

 points. Such perfect concordance in the results of inde- 

 pendent workers affords a pleasing commentary on the skill of 

 both. 



