2o8 The American Geologist. October, 1902. 
smaller end of the mass cut off the lower part from the up- 
per; the latter extending beyond in diminished size for three 
feet further. Our Alexicans were astonished v^t the revelation 
of their own work; they marvelled alike at *he size of the 
mass as their digging had developed it, and at our credulity 
in believing that it had ever fallen from space above. Mew 
seen on plate iv Xo. 2 gives a somewhat oblique view after fui- 
ther excavation. Plate v Nos. 3 and 5 gives the same view, and 
shows the unequal weathering of the mass, the part most ex- 
posed being the least weathered. Plate vi is another view tak- 
en from above and lengthwise of the mass. This shows on the 
right hand the fissure in the mass. 
By the end of the second day we had car"led oin* excava- 
tion to an avoi'agc depth of about 6 feel on every side. The 
black vegetable soil was from three to four feet thick. Below 
it was a porphyry rock, common in this part of the country, 
much broken up by natural cleavages and a good deal decom- 
posed in situ. The vegetable soil passed very gradually into this 
rock, and seemed to have unquestionably formed above it, as 
an operation of gradual change. Immediately ai'ovuid the me- 
teorite we had dug much lower, leaving the great iron mass 
poised on a pillar or pedestal of the undisturbed rock. Finally 
we performed a feat of moving the great mass. To lift one 
end would have been a physical impossibility, all our men 
with the stoutest tackle in the district could not have done 
that ; Ijut it needed little mechanical aid to make the mass 
move itself. We attacked with our long iron bars one side of 
the supporting- pedestal on which it was balanced. It was 
slow work, for the rock seemed to be here somewhat less (\e- 
composed. After long chiseling away one side of the pedestal, 
the center of gravity was reached, and with a slow, almost 
dignified movement the great meteorite sank at one end, and 
assumed the semi-vertical position which is brought out in 
plate vii. The photographer is seen standing midway of the 
mass. Incidentally there is well shown the depth of our ex- 
cavation below the level of the corn field. We upset the mass 
in an effort to ascertain, if possible, In* the nature of the rock 
beneath it, the recent or the ancient fall of the mass. \\'as 
the soil already there when the meteorite fell, and did the latter 
by virtue of its weight crush through it to the rock? In the 
