Preliminary Note on the Meteorites in the Bloemfontein Museum. 219 
cut off and digested in dilute sulphuric acid (1/20) for two days. The 
specimen was arranged upon a perforated disc in a funnel, so that the 
ferrous sulphate formed by solution of the iron could be drained away 
without disturbing the residue. When this was done a beautiful skeleton 
crystalline mass of the alloy remained behind. The interstices were 
filled with carbon in an amorphous and powdery form. The structure 
was so fragile that the slightest jar given to the funnel caused it to fall 
to pieces. A photograph of the debris is shown in Fig. 14, Plate VII. 
It looks like the remains of an octahedral crystal. One has hopes, with 
more careful treatment, to obtain one of these skeleton crystals. 
Fig. 13. Magnification, 20 diameters. 
The residue usually left behind by solution in dilute sulphuric acid 
consists of carbon containing siliceous matter and triangular flakes of 
iron nickel, evidently portions of larger crystalline masses, as Figs. 15, 
16, and 17 will show. Some of the flakes attain a length of more than a 
centimeter, and have bright glistening surfaces. Fig. 15 is a shadow 
photograph. There is evidently a tendency to cleave into small triangular 
pieces. Occasionally " cross hatchings " are seen, as in Fig. 10a, but 
as a rule they are not present. The whole mass is distinctly magnetic, 
having a number of poles which we easily found with a small compass, 
and magnetic susceptibility was retained by the crystals up to a red heat. 
The meteorite is thus composed of , a mixture of pure iron and iron-nickel 
15 
