108 
IOWA ACADEMY OF SCIENCE Vor. XXIX, 1922 
This stone ax was seven inches long, six and a half inches 
wide, and two inches thick but tapering off to thin edges. Its 
color was light grayish brown. Its specific gravity was about 
3.55 which is less than iron pyrite. What was it? It was submit- 
ted to the inspection of a few of the instructors of the State 
University, who expressed the opinion that it was iron pyrite 
but they had never seen anything just like it. Whilst it could 
not be a stone ax and belong to the Carboniferous age, its re- 
semblance in outline to a stone ax is so very noticeable, I have 
not allowed it to be broken so as to disclose the appearance of its 
interior. One is sometimes prompted to suspect that it may be 
Fig. 2. Interior view of lump of coal showing where “ax” was found. 
a lump of clay which had befen compressed into small compass 
by great pressure ; yet its edges in a few small places disclose the 
characteristic brassy color of pyrite. 
The lump of coal containing this “stone ax” weighed twenty- 
nine and a half pounds. The “ax” weighed four and three-fourths 
pounds. This lump of coal was almost a cube, each face meas- 
uring about ten inches in length and breadth. 
I showed this specimen to the drayman who had delivered the 
coal, who brought me a similar specimen, a little larger, but more 
