490 G. P. Merrill — New Meteorite from California. 



I am led to these conclusions from a consideration of the 

 following facts : (1.) It would seem very improbable that the 

 angite first separated from the molten magma in such irregu- 

 lar forms ; (2.) The original outline of the augite is perfectly- 

 sharp and smooth, eminently characteristic of augitic outlines 

 in this class of rocks ; (3.) The new portion is much the lighter 

 in color being in fact so nearly colorless as at first to be wholly 

 overlooked when examining the section by ordinary light ; (4.) 

 It projects in very irregular and jagged forms into the serpen- 

 tinized olivine (c in the figures). Indeed its appearance is 

 such as to suggest that not only was its formation subsequent 

 to the consolidation of the rock, but that it is an accompani- 

 ment of the alteration, the sharp tooth-like edges projecting 

 into .the olivines along the curvilinear lines of fracture much 

 like the ordinary beginnings of serpentinization. The new 

 growth, it should be stated, possesses in all cases the same 

 crystallographic orientation as the original, the entire mass ex- 

 tinguishing simultaneously between crossed nicols when in the 

 position indicated in the figures. The new portion is there- 

 fore not a secondary hornblende such as Mr. Yan Hise has 

 shown occurring as a secondary growth on the augites of cer- 

 tain Wisconsin diabases. 



The figures given were drawn with the aid of a camera 

 lucida and show correctly the relative width of the borders 

 and the primary augites in two rather pronounced cases. No 

 attempt has been made to draw in the serpentine portions 

 of the slide, the mineral being merely indicated by the dotted 

 areas (c) in the figures. The black opaque spots, it is scarcely 

 necessary to say, represent magnetite. 



The writer wishes here to acknowledge his indebtedness to 

 Dr. G. H. Williams, under whose instruction this and other 

 rocks soon to be described were studied during the winter of 

 1887-88 in the laboratories of the Johns Hopkins University. 



National Museum, Washington, Feb. 15, 1888. 



Art. XLIY. — On a New Meteorite from the San Emigdio 

 Range, San Bernardino County, California ; by George 

 P. Merrill. 



The fragments of the meteorite briefly described below 

 were given the writer in March, 1887, by Mr. Thomas Price, 

 the well-known Assay er and Bullion Melter of San Francisco, 

 California. The stone was stated by Mr. Price to have been 

 found by a prospector in the San Emigdio Mts., and to have 

 been sent him for assaying, it being mistaken for an ore of 



