METEORITES, N.S.W. 347 



of the yellow metal was dissolved in aqua regia and the 

 solution taken up on a scrap of filter paper and exposed to 

 the sunlight ; after a day or so the paper acquired the 

 usual pinkish tinge yielded by very dilute solutions of gold 

 chloride. 



Every precaution that I could think of was taken to 

 avoid the access of gold and platinum in these experiments; 

 the agate mortar and pestle were tested by grinding them 

 for long periods with materials free from gold and platinum, 

 and different agate mortars and pestles were used including 

 a perfectly new one, no trace of gold, platinum or other 

 metal was obtained from any of them. And nothing con- 

 taining either gold or platinum had ever been in contact 

 with the saws, which were new, and as far as I can ascer- 

 tain nothing containing either gold or the platinum metals 

 had been worked in the building in which the cutting and 

 plaining of the meteorite had been carried out. Every- 

 thing was scrupulously cleaned up after each cutting. 



The results of several experiments with filings from this 

 meteorite which yielded somewhat larger quantities of gold 

 and platinum are omitted, because I am not absolutely 

 sure that a new file had been used, and the vice had been 

 used for holding gold and platinum nuggets. 



The first few white metallic spangles obtained from some 

 of the filings were insoluble in a mixture of nitric and hydro- 

 chloric acids, even when warmed and evaporated to dryness, 

 neither did they appear to diminish in size or to change 

 in any way, (the action of the acids being watched under 

 the microscope with a one inch lens); they appeared there- 

 fore to be particles of iridium or of iridium metals, but as 

 they were obtained from the filings, I do not now regard 

 the presence of iridium metals as absolutely proved, 

 although in a preliminary notice of this meteorite I had 

 regarded them as present. 1 The white metallic spangles 



1 Jourii. Roy. Soc, N. S. Wales, 1902, p. 282. 



