G. F. Kunz — New American Meteorites. 313 



known the fact for a long time, yet, strange to say, no impor- 

 tance was attached to them until Mrs. Kimberly applied to 

 Professor F. W. Cragin, of Washburn University, in the early 

 part of last spring. It was not until the 13th of March that 

 Professor Cragin secured four of these masses. They were 

 nearly all found by being struck by mowing-machines, plough- 

 shares, corn- cultivators, or other farm implements. Over 

 twenty distinct masses have been reported ; but it is very 

 evident, from the weight and other facts, that some have been 

 noted several times over. The townships are reckoned from 

 the base-line, the 40th parallel ; and the ranges, from the 6th 

 principal meridian, which crosses Kansas about longitude 

 97° 30' west of Greenwich. Brenham Township [27] is made 

 up of thirty-six sections, each one mile square, numbering 

 from No. 1 to No. 36. The meteorites seem to have covered 

 an area over one mile in length. Some of them fell on the 

 east half of the northwest quarter, Section 27, Township 28, 

 Range 17, west of the 6th principal meridian. 



The history of some of the pieces is remarkable. The 

 35*72-pound piece, found on the Evans place, was lost, and 

 again found in a hole made by hogs under a barbed- wire fence. 

 The 75-pound mass was used by Mrs. Kimberly to hold down 

 a cellar door or the cover to a rain-barrel. Mass No. 3 was 

 used to keep down a stable-roof. The 466-pound mass [called 

 by the farmers the " moon meteorite "] was covered by only 

 three inches of soil, and broke a ploughshare when first struck. 

 Apparently none of the masses were buried to a greater depth 

 than five or six inches. 



The 101 '5-pound, the 71 - 5 pound, and the 55-pound masses 

 were found four years ago by a cow-boy, when the ranch had 

 not yet been occupied by settlers, being simply used as a cattle- 

 range. He was unable to move them to the " Green's Stage 

 Station," now Greensburg, eight miles distant, and so buried 

 them in the gulch a mile northwest of the Kimberly farm on 

 the " Francisco Claim." About a year afterward he became 

 ill, and died ; but before his death he communicated the burial 

 of the " three strange rocks," as he called them, to two of the 

 settlers, who succeeded in finding them and bringing them to 

 the new town of Greensburg about a year later. The 55-pound 

 mass was carried over by a neighbor, who used it to weight 

 down his haystack. 



Professor Snow, of Lawrence, Kansas, visited Kiowa County 

 several times, and the last time obtained the 10i*5-pound mass 

 in the streets of Greensburg, the county seat, where it had 

 lain for several years in front of a lawyer's real estate office. 



The exterior of all the masses shows the characteristic 

 pitting. The surfaces have all been more or less oxidized by 



