372 METEORIC IRONS OF NORTH MEXICO. 



Signor Urquida calculated its weight to be about four thousand 

 pounds. 



No. 5. — The locality of a huge meteorite lately discovered, 

 of which no specimen has yet been detached, and is said to be 

 larger than any one yet found in that locality. 



No. 6. — The locality of the large mass described and figured 

 by me in 1854 as the Tucson iron, and now in the Smithsonian 

 Institution at Washington, having a large hole in the center, 

 and sometimes called the Signet meteorite, also the Ainsa mete- 

 orite. I do not know its exact weight, but suppose that it must 

 weigh two or three thousand pounds. 



The question naturally arises, what can be the cause of the 

 number of meteoric masses in the circumscribed region, and 

 whether each one represents a separate fall? My study of 

 them leads me to the belief that they are the products of two 

 falls. First of all, No. 6, the Signet or Ainsa meteorite, has 

 peculiar physical and chemical characters that separate it 

 entirely from the others. Nos. 1, 2, and 3 I have examined 

 chemically, and find them very closely allied in composition, 

 also in physical properties, as the softness of the iron, and free- 

 dom from rusty crusts over the exterior ; in fact, the pieces I 

 have examined were more or less bright on the exterior surface. 

 The Widmannstattian figures I have not had an opportunity to 

 compare, since, with the exception of No. 1, I have had only 

 small pieces that were detached from the surface by a cold- 

 chisel, which are unfit for the study of these figures. Thus far 

 in my investigation there appear strong reasons for supposing 

 that at some epoch, probably far remote, the meteoric masses 

 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5 were the products of the fall of one meteoric- 

 mass, moving from the north-east to the south-west, the smaller 

 masses falling first at 1 and 2, and the larger masses farther on. 

 The distances of these bodies from each other are : from Nos. 1 

 to 2, about eighty-five miles ; from 2 to 5, about one hundred 

 and thirty-five miles ; from 5 to 3, about one hundred and sixty- 

 five miles ; from 3 to 4, about ninety miles. Of course there is 

 no great stress laid upon these deductions, but it would not be 

 surprising if farther investigation should sustain this view. 



Since my first publication on these meteorites, Burckhardt, 

 of Bonn, has made some observations on them, but his publi- 

 cations are not within my reach at the present time. 



