Howard and Damson — Estacado Aerolite. 55 



Art. IX. — The Estacado Aerolite • Description by Kenneth 

 S. Howard ; Analysis by John M. Davison. 



I 



The aerolite from Texas recently obtained by Ward's Nat- 

 ural Science Establishment, as noted in the February issue of 

 this Journal, has been brought to Rochester, sliced, and 

 analyzed chemically and petrographically. 



What is known concerning the fall of this meteorite is told 

 by a resident of Hale Center, Texas : " The best history I can 

 give of the meteorite is as follows : It was found twelve miles 

 south of Hale Center, which is located in the center of Hale 

 County, Texas, in the spring of 1902, or rather that is when it 

 was taken home by R. A. McWhorter, who has been the owner 

 of it all the time. In the year of 1882 a bright meteor was 

 seen one night by the people of a Quaker colony called Esta- 

 cado. This place is about fifteen miles southeast of where the 

 meteor was found. The meteor was seen to pass to the west 

 and fall north w T est from them. At that time this Quaker col- 

 ony was the only settlement on the whole Staked Plains, and 

 the only people outside of them were a few scattering cowmen. 

 In the following year of 1883 a few cowboys, in rounding up the 

 range, saw this meteor and the Estacado people felt certain 

 that this was what they saw fall the year before, and we have 

 all considered it so." As the region is a stoneless one, the 

 attention of the people of the vicinity were naturally attracted 

 to this remarkable mass. The name of the settlement, Esta- 

 cado, seems most appropriate for the aerolite. 



The weight of the meteorite before sawing was about two 

 hundred ninety kilograms, it thus being among the largest of 

 known aerolites. Its form was trapezoidal, as shown by the 

 photographs. Its longest diameter was 58*5 cm , while its other 

 two diameters measured 45*7 cm and 44'4 cm . It was cut in half 

 parallel to its longest and shortest diameters. Several slabs 

 were taken off at the same time, one of them being shown in 

 photograph 3. The greatest vertical diameter of this slab is 

 about 18 cm back of what was apparently the "nose" of the 

 meteorite. 



The exterior of the mass is rusty brown in color, probably 

 due to terrestrial oxidation. The sawed slices of the stone 

 show a tendency to rust rapidly. Hardly any of the coating 

 of the meteorite approaches in appearance the black of an 

 original crust. On some of the sides the oxidation has been 

 considerable, a scale knocked off of one side being 3 to 4 mm 

 thick. As shown by the photographs (figs. 1, 2), the mass has 



