318 //. ^4. Ward — Bath Furnace Meteorite. 



The whole mass is sprinkled liberally throughout with bright 

 iron particles. Most of these are distributed as a bright star 

 constellation ; but among them are scattered a small number 

 which are from one to four millimeters in diameter, mostly of 

 irregular, angular shape. In several instances these are 

 broken sharply in two, and are crossed by granular troilite, 

 tine-grained and fresh shining. One of these is a six milli- 

 meter triangle in which the three points only are of bright 

 nickel-iron, while the balance is troilite. in two other cases, 

 nodules, two millimeters in diameter, have a center of troilite, 

 with a circumference of bright iron. That the brown blotches 

 before referred to are due to the oxidation of iron cannot be 

 doubted ; bnt as there has been no opportunity for this process 

 to have gone on, either since the fall of the stone or during 

 its passage through our atmosphere, the question is raised as 

 to its having found the oxygen in the parent body from whence 

 it came? 



Pezographs, or finger-mark pittings, are visible on all sur- 

 faces of the mass, yet varying notably on different sides. On 

 two sides they are few in number, and only dim depressions — 

 though still unmistakable in their nature. On the other three 

 surfaces they are frequent, and are three to five millimeters in 

 depth, with area as large as the end of an adult human finger. 

 Some few are independently placed, but most of them are con- 

 fluent, and show the line of movement of the mass through 

 the furrowing air. One notable gathering is curiously like 

 the crowded tracks of three or four kittens' feet. Two of 

 the smaller sides of the mass have a very different pitting, — 

 that thickly crowded rain-drop appearance which is often 

 found on a secondary crust which has formed on a fresh sur- 

 face after the breaking of the mass in the air. In one place 

 there is a furrow one and one-half inches long and two to four 

 millimeters deep and wide, with walls of overhanging crust. 

 So far as examination has yet been carried, this new aerolite 

 presents no features of form or of composition which are 

 materially different from others of its class. A careful petro- 

 giuphical examination may, however, reveal something of 

 especial moment. The relation of the intruding troilite to the 

 riven particles of nickel-iron certainly merits further investi- 

 gation. 



At my request, Professor Merrill of the National Museum has 

 kindly made a couple of slides of the mass, and reports as fol- 

 lows : " The stone consists essentially of olivine and pyroxene, 

 with the usual metallic sprinklings and troilite. There is 

 present also in small quantities a completely colorless, almost 

 isotropic mineral, which is probably maskelynite, although, if 

 such is the case, it is a product of original crystallization and 

 has not been altered by fusion, as suggested by Tschermak. 



