GEOLOGY OP NORTH CAROLINA. 
314 
He also notes the point that it contains chloride of iron, a substance 
rarely found in meteorites. 
Dr. J. Lawrence Smith, for whom I was able with much difficulty to 
sever a larger fragment, also made a minute investigation of it. His 
analysis is as follows : 
Iron, 90.88 
Nickel, 8.02 
Cobalt, 0.05 
Copper, 0.03 
Phosphorus, 0.03 
The fragment analysed was selected so as to be “ free from any schrei- 
bersite visible to the eye.” “ It3 specific gravity was 7.78.” “ Its struc- 
ture is highly crystalline, and when polished and either heated or acted 
on by nitric acid, develops remarkably fine Widmanstaetian figures with 
delicate markings on the inside of the figures.” “ I discovered some of 
the chloride of iron, enough to test its nature and leave a small fragment’ 
that is now in the Garden of Plants, Paris.” 
The Nash County Meteorite . — On May 14th, 1874, at 2^ P. H., there 
fell near Castalia, in Nash county, a shower of meteorites. Dr. King has 
given me the particulars of the fall. He says there were “ rumbling ex- 
plosions as of fire arms in battle a few miles off, which continued for four 
minutes.” Four fragments have been picked up, one of 12 pounds, one 
of 6, and two smaller, of between one and two pounds, which I was so 
fortunate as to obtain from the finders through their courtesy and by 
favor of Hon. J. J. Davis. The specimens all have a thin black coating, 
and are of a light to dark gray color inside. 
Dr. Smith, to whom I forwarded a fragment, has made an analysis and 
report, from which I make the following abstract: “ The principal cause 
of the dark color is doubtless the large amount of Nickeliferous iron, and 
in the lighter portions there are some white spots of a mineral which is 
doubtless enstatite. The specific gravity is 3,061.” The composition 
is as follows : 
Nickeliferous Iron, 15.21 
Earthy Minerals, 84.79 
The former is composed of 
Iron, 92.12 
