90 
THE GEOLOGIST. 
The mass is covered thickly with a series of shallow pits or depres- 
sions, about i to of an inch deep. The spaces between the holes 
are bright like steel. Its weight is about 12 or 13 lbs. 
In consequence of finding a difficulty in fixing the position or po- 
sitions of the Atacama Meteorite in 1826,1 gave Peine, Guanaquero, 
Chala, and two other spots north of Challa, all in the desert of Ata- 
cama ; also Mino, to the east of Mani, near the Peruvian and Bolivian 
boundaries. I tried to get across the desert in 1828, from the coast 
of the Pacific, in the hope of examining the localities of Guanaquero 
and Peine, near to one or other of which places I hoped to find the 
meteoric deposit. I was lost for awhile in the desert of Atacama, 
and had to return to the coast. Near to Toconao. north-east of Peine, 
was supposed by Sir W. Parish to be the spot ; but in 1853, Dr. 
Pliilippi determined Imilac, a few miles south-west of Peine, to be 
the spot, or one of the spots of the fall of the Atacama Meteorite. 
A. very large specimen from Atacama is in the possession of Domey- 
ko, in Santiago, in Chile ; some others I have seen, as well as many 
small fragments which fell at Imilac ; as to my small specimen obtained 
in 1826, when I was in Tarapuca, it may or may not have been col- 
lected at Imilac* 
The large specimen of the Atacama Meteorite deposited by me in 
the British ]\ruseum, I procured on the west coast in 1854. I have 
had some doubts as to whether Imilac ought to be given as the locality 
of its fall. I made this observation in my paper to the Meteorolo- 
gical Society, 1858, as to this specimen ; the same will apply to a 
slice of meteoric stone in the same 3ruseum, and that in the ^luseum 
of Practical Geology. The information I had was what I let the Bri- 
tish Museum have, that it (and others, one weighing over SOlbs.) 
were brought to Cobija by a muleteer, from " somewhere to the east 
in the desert of Atacama, and it was thought there were several 
similar deposits in the track to Antofogasta." 
These specimens have the external mechanical character of the 
Imilac specimens, but the metallic part is dark, as if much oxidized, 
and the earthy part is more crystalline. 
Kicol, in his 'Mineralogy,' gives an analvsis bv Eivero of meteoric 
iron from " Potosi :"— iron, 90 24 ; nickel,' 9 76 = 100 0. Domeyko 
gives for the Atacama one (Imilac) : — iron, 8n-54 ; nickel, 8*24; co- 
balt, 1-14 ; silica, 0T6. From this difference of composition compared 
with that of the one from " Potosi," we may say that Imilac was not 
its place of deposit. 
I advert in my paper to the Meteorological Society to three stones 
found four leagues inland from Playabrava (23° 35'j, two round and 
porous, the other porous, flat, and triangular. I suspect them to be 
meteoric (for they are said to be of " iron"), and the locality they 
were found in, although near the latitude of Imilac, is much further 
to the west. Having disposed of these amygdalo-peridotic varieties, 
* I gave 23° 30' S., 68° 50' TV. as the position of Dr. Reid's specimens (which are 
at Ratisbon), and there may be a doubt that they came from Imilac, which is in 23° 49' S., 
69°14'W. ' 
