346 A. LIVERSIDGE. 



(d) 20 gms of sawdust yielded a trace of platinum in the 

 residue from HOI and in the precipitate from SH 2 but no 

 gold. 



(e) 8 gms of sawdust expressly obtained from another 

 part of the meteorite, with a new saw and a different 

 machine, yielded two bronze coloured metallic specks 

 soluble in nitric acid and some yellow metallic specks 

 insoluble in nitric acid and therefore presumably gold. 



(f ) A portion of a slice of the meteorite weighing 7*8 gms 

 yielded both gold and platinum in the residue insoluble in 

 hydrochloric acid. 



[The sawdust affords a much better average sample than 

 a fragment or slice of the meteorite, inasmuch as it repre- 

 sents the composition of a slice right through the mass of 

 the meteorite ; the loss in weight of the hard steel saw is 

 extremely small and the percentage results are practically 

 unaffected by the steel worn from the saw ; thus in cutting 

 slices from the Narraburra siderite in which 478 gms. of 

 sawdust were obtained, the saws only lost *94 gm., i.e., 

 the sawdust only contained *2°f of steel from the saws]. 



(g) The bromine which had been used for etching the 

 meteorite was also tested for gold and platinum. This, of 

 course, yielded a sample giving the average composition 

 across the section, and consisted mainly of iron, nickel, 

 and cobalt as bromides ; it was evaporated to dryness and 

 heated, some of the ferric bromide volatilized and part was 

 converted into iron sesquioxide — this residue was extracted 

 with chlorine water for 24 hours, decanted and evaporated 

 down. On grinding portions of the residue in an agate 

 mortar, one yielded a speck of yellow metal and three 

 others yielded specks of a platinum-like metal. Both 

 metals were insoluble in nitric acid. 



The amount of gold and platinum left was too small to 

 admit of the application of the usual wet tests, but some 



