264 L. L. Smith — An A\(,stralian Meteorite. 



Akt. XX VI. — An Australian Meteorite; by L. Laybourne 



Smith. 



A METEORITE of particiilMr interest has lately been discovered 

 at Murnpeowie in Soutli Australia. It has been acquired by 

 the Council of the School of Mines at Adelaide for exhibition 

 in the mineral and petrological museum of that institution. 

 The new meteorite is a siderite, and is the fourth find of that 

 class to be credited to the central Australian state. The list 

 now comprises the " Yardea," 7^ lbs. ; the " Rhine Villa," 7^ 

 lbs. (described in the S. A. School of Mines Report 1900) ; the 

 " Arltunga," 40 lbs. (not yet described) ; and 'the " Murn- 

 peowie," 2520 lbs. ' 



The discovery was made by some boundary fence repairers 

 working on the Beltana Pastoral Company's Murnpeowie run, 

 at a spot 29° 35' latitude and 139° 54' longitude, being about 

 16 miles N.E. by E. of Mt. Hopeless. The country at the 

 place is flat and devoid of stones. The men thought the 

 meteorite to be an isolated rock, and used to stand on it when 

 scanning the plain in search of their donkeys. One day one of 

 the men struck the stone with a hammer, and was astonished 

 at the bell-like sound which it emitted. With much difliculty 

 they were enabled with chisel and crow-bar to fracture off a 

 small piece, which they forwarded to the School of Mines at 

 Adelaide, which institution has a department where assays of 

 minerals found on the Crown Lands of the State may be made 

 and results supplied to applicants free of charge. On being 

 informed that they had discovered a meteorite, they wrote 

 to me offering to sell their find, with the result mentioned 

 above. 



The work of transporting the meteorite to Farina, the near- 

 est point to the railway, was undertaken by two men with a 

 wagon drawn by 26 donkeys. The journey to and from the 

 site of the find, a distance of 278 miles, occupied 27 days. The 

 ground was dug away and the wagon lowered until its floor 

 was level with the surface, and the meteorite then turned over 

 — the donkeys pulling on chains. A careful search was made 

 for further pieces but without success. In the vicinity of the 

 find was a hole which I am of opinion was made by the falling 

 meteorite. This hole was roughly elliptical in shape, with its 

 major axis almost due east and west. It measured 16 ft. 6 in. 

 in length, its greatest widtli 12 ft., and it was 4 ft. deep. The 

 meteorite was lying a distance of 70 yards from the eastern 

 end of the hole and in the direction of the longer axis. The 

 earth had been thrown out into two ridges extending radially 

 for 15 ft. on either side of the hole. Between the meteorite 



