METEORIC IRONS OF NORTH MEXICO: 



PEECISE GEOGKAPHICAL POSITION, WITH DESCRIPTION 

 OE A NEW MASS — THE SAN-GKEGOKIO METEOEITE. 



Some of the remarkable masses of meteoric iron in Northern 

 Mexico have been known to travelers for a number of years, 

 but no very precise information concerning them had been 

 given until the year 1854, when the first mass brought from 

 that locality was placed at my disposal by Lieut. Grouch, of the 

 United States army, and was described in a memoir on mete- 

 orites published in the Amer. Jour, of Science and Arts, April, 

 1854 ; it is now in the Smithsonian Museum, and weighs two 

 hundred and fifty-two pounds. 



On the return of Mr. Bartlett, of the Boundary Commis- 

 sion, I learned of two other masses in 'that region, and Lieut. 

 John G-. Parke, of the United States army, placed a fragment 

 of one of them in my possession ; the fragment of the other 

 mass was lost. I figured and described both of those mete- 

 orites in the memoir just alluded to; the first, which I called 

 the Tucson meteorite, is now in the Smithsonian Institute, and 

 weighs, I believe, several thousand pounds ; the second one I 

 called the Chihuahua iron, and is still at the Hacienda de Con- 

 ception, where it was first found. Still later, in the year 1868, 

 Dr. H. B. Butcher placed under my examination eight masses 

 of meteoric iron that had been brought to the United States 

 from the same region of Mexico ; these I examined, and pub- 

 lished a full account of in the Amer. Jour, of Science and Arts. 

 These masses are now in Philadelphia, still owned by Dr. 

 Butcher, and vary in weight from about three hundred to eight 

 hundred pounds. Dr. Butcher having returned to Mexico, I 

 requested him to get all possible information in regard to the 

 geographical position of these bodies ; this he has succeeded in 

 accomplishing. At the same time he has sent a fragment of an- 

 other mass, still larger than any yet known, which will be called 

 the San-Gregorio meteoric iron. Its description is as follows. 



