II. S. Washington — Jerome Meteorite. 44:7 



Art. LVI. — The Jerome {Kansas) Meteorite ; by Henry S. 



Washington. 



The meteorite, described in the present paper, was acquired 

 for the Yale University Collection about a year ago, through 

 the generosity of members of the Class of 1857. Prof. Dana 

 entrusted it to me for examination, for which kindness I desire 

 to express my hearty thanks. 



Little is known of the circumstances of its finding, and all 

 that could be ascertained was published by Prof. Dana in a 

 note in the Tale Alumni Weekly for May 6, 1897, from 

 which 1 quote the following : — 



" It was found April 10, 1894, by Mr. H. T. Martin, on the 

 Smoky Hill River, Gove Co., Kansas, about 15 miles east of 

 Jerome. Mr. Martin was then engaged in hunting fossils, and 

 his attention was attracted by this mass, whose appearance was 

 quite foreign to the rock of the neighborhood. It proved on 

 examination to be a meteorite, of the circumstances of whose 

 fall nothing has been learned. The same State has furnished 

 a number of other meteorites at points considerably distant 

 from that where the present one was discovered, and it is pos- 

 sible that some of them may prove to have been parts of the 

 same original meteor. . . . The stone has been placed in the 

 center of the case devoted to meteorites in the mineral room 

 of the Peabody Museum." 



As the Smoky Hill River is several hundred miles long, 

 and other meteorites may be found in the extended area of 

 Gove Co., I propose for this mass the name of the Jerome 

 Meteorite, after the nearest town. 



The stone consists of several pieces, the largest weighing 

 about 62 lbs. (30 kilos), with several smaller fragments, the 

 largest of which weighs 2^ lbs. and collectively 3J. One of 

 these was apparently broken off at the time of fall, as none of 

 its surfaces are those of a fresh fracture. 



The main mass measures some 12 inches in its largest diame- 

 ter, the other dimensions being between 9 and 10 inches ; it 

 has roughly pointed ends, and its polyhedral form is vaguely 

 suggestive of a dodecahedron drawn out in the direction of its 

 vertical axis. One end is quite sharply pointed, while the other 

 is blunter and irregular, showing some fresh and other older 

 fracture surfaces, and is apparently the point of impact. From 

 this broken surface a number of fine cracks radiate through the 

 body of the mass. 



The mass is bounded by fairly plane surfaces, some being 

 quite flat, while others are more or less warped. The angles 



Am. Jour. Sol— Fourth Series, Vol. V, No. 30.— June, 1898. 

 30 



