METEORITES 1 I 1 



At t lif entrance of the ball is the general collection of meteorites, which 

 is one of the largest and most representative in thi^ country, 



Meteorites . . . ,.,,,'• 



containing as it docs specimens From about uve hundred <>l 

 the seven hundred falls and finds that are known throughoul the world. 

 Some of the principal features of our collect ion are: 



Two thousand or more individual masses from the"stone shower" that 

 fell neat- Holbrook, Arizona, in 1912. These have been arranged in a case 

 by themselves in the middle of the collection. 



The whole mass of Ysleta, a newly discovered (1914) iron meteorite, 

 weighing 310 pounds from near the ancient village of Ysleta, New Mexico. 



A series of polished and etched large slices of iron meteorites, including 

 an entire section of the new Mt. Edith, Australia, mass, showing the Wid- 

 manstatten lines in great perfection, and polished slabs from several Large 

 stone meteorites. These are in a case by themselves w T hich likewise con- 

 tains several comparatively large entire single masses of some famous falls. 



An exhibit of meteoritic masses, decomposition products, and country 

 rock showing unaltered material and that w r hich w T as melted and otherw ise 

 altered by the impact of the Canyon Diablo meteorite at the spot now 

 known as Meteor Crater, Arizona. This exhibit has been loaned to the 

 Museum by Princeton University. 



The desk case in the first alcove to the left as one enters the hall con- 

 tains a series of rock specimens showing the geology of 



eo ogy o Manhattan Island. This is arranged geographicallv and 



Manhattan .„ „ . .?..,., 



Island illustrates all the most prominent features ot immediately 



local geology from south to north. 

 Going northward in the hall the next large exhibit to attract the atten- 

 tion of the visitor is the stump and part of the roots of a large tree from an 



anthracite coal mine under Scranton, Pa. Millions of years 

 T «. ago, in the geological period knowm as the Carboniferous, 



this tree grew upon the top of a thick swamp deposit of 



decaying vegetation which ultimately became a most valuable bed of coal. 



The stump w r as left in the roof of the mine when the coal was extracted for 



commercial and domestic uses. It fell to the floor years after the gallery 



had been abandoned and w r as discovered only through the chance visit of 



a miner. 



Next the visitor will see an exhibit illustrating some of the results of an 



expedition which the Museum sent to Martinique and St. Vincent during 



the great volcanic eruptions of 1902-1903 that devastated those islands of 



,, . _ ,„ the Lesser Antilles chain. A set of four relief maps shows the 



Mont Pelee . . . , 



island of Martinique and its famous volcano, Mont Pelee, 



at three important stages of the eruptions, while the nearby cases and pedes- 

 tals contain relics of the ruined city of St. Pierre and the dust, stones and 

 bread-crust bombs that were thrown out in a w r hite hot or molten condition 



