Editorial Comment. 253 
quite through the flange, being a foot or more in length 
and only an inch or two in diameter. From these elongated 
holes there are all stages of gradation to the shallower and 
larger basins, indicating a common nature and origin. 
Dr. Ward makes a distinction between the channels 
and basins on the two sides (the upper and the lower) of 
the iron mass. Those on the conical side (the brustseite) 
are attributed by him to atmospheric pressure and friction. 
Those which cross the outer edge of the great flange, cut- 
ting channels across its outline, he likewise ascribes to the 
action of the compressed air and the heat resulting from the 
passage of the mass through the atmosphere, while those 
which are wholly confined to the lower surface, not pene- 
trating deep enough to reach the brustseite, nor extending 
laterally far enough to reach the outer edge of the flange, 
he attributes to atmospheric decomposition of the iron since 
it fell, aided by the moist soil and the carbonic acid result- 
ing from vegetable decay. 
The parties having the meteorite in charge at the Lewis 
and Clark Exposition, attached a label which read as fol- 
lows, evidently derived from Dr. -Ward's paper: 
"When this meteorite was discovered it was imbedded in the 
earth, the base uppermost, the position which it probably held 
when it fell through our atmosphere, centuries ago. The pitting, 
hollowings, and channelings observed on the surface are due to 
the heat caused by the compression of the air." 
We are compelled to take sharp issue with Dr. Ward as 
to the origin of these features. We did not notice any of 
those differences which he mentions, and most of the hypo- 
thetical operations of the air appear to be problematical or 
impossible, so far as applicable to this meteorite. We can- 
not understand how the air can bore auger holes into an 
iron meteroite, and that too in various directions. Some 
of these smatl excavations are directed parallel (or approxi- 
mately so) to the supposed direction of flight; others are 
nearly at right angles to it. They also branch or anasto- 
mose with others. They appeared to the writer to grade, as 
to form and position in the iron mass, into each other, and 
to differ only because of the form and position of some dif- 
ferent ingredient which once occupied the cavities. It is 
to the writer very questionable whether any meteorite, in 
