F. P. Venable — Two new Meteoric Irons. 161 



inches to a foot in height and filled completely with the white 

 zinc sulphide. When taken from the mine this substance is 

 soft, full of water, and resembles in appearance and con- 

 sistency white lead ground in oil. It has a very slight reddish 

 cast, probably from a little ferric oxide. Some red tallow 

 clays overlie the deposit. In a shaft about 250 feet distant, 

 near the same level, a much larger body has been exposed in 

 the floor of the workings. This mass of sulphide of zinc has 

 not been developed but is at least four feet in thickness and 

 extends for a distance of thirty feet. Evidences point to 

 quite an extensive body of this peculiar ore of zinc in this 

 mine. 



An analysis made by the St. Louis Sanrpling and Testing 

 Works shows the following composition on the dried sample : 



Insoluble matter ■ 2 - 52 



Zinc 63-70 



Sulphur 30-77 



Ferric oxide 2-40 



99-39 



The water which was contained in the original sample bot- 

 tled on the ground showed a slight amount of sulphuric acid. 



This sulphide was evidently formed since the deposi- 

 tion of the ore by the precipitation of the sulphate of zinc, 

 resulting from the oxidation of ordinary blende by sulphu- 

 reted hydrogen or an alkaline sulphide. ISTo odor of sulphu- 

 reted hydrogen was perceptible in the mine nor was any 

 found in the water which saturated this sulphide of zinc. 

 This mineral has never, it is believed, been met with before, 

 the conditions which would thus imitate the reactions of the 

 laboratory not being common in nature. 



Art. XX. — Two new Meteoric Irons; by F. P. Tenable. 

 1. From Rockingham County, N. C. 



This mass was reported to have fallen about the year 1846, 

 near the old " Mansion House," Deep Springs Farm in Rock- 

 ingham Co., N. C. One of the old negro servants related to 

 Mr. Lindsay, the present owner of the farm, that " the rock 

 fell on a clear morning and struck the ground about a hundred 

 yards back of the garden. It frightened every one very much. 

 Col. Jas. Scales, the owner of the farm at that time, and Mr. 

 Dillard took a man and went to the spot and dug in about four 

 or five feet and got it out." It lay about the house as a curi- 



Am. Jour. Sci— Third Series, Vol. XL, No. 236. — August, 1890. 

 11 



