254 The American Geologist. oi-tober, 1905 
passing through the atmosphere, becomes heated to the 
depth of any, even the shallowest, of these cavities. When 
the Winnebago meteorite fell, one of the three large masses 
struck in a meadow where the dried long grass was carried 
by it into the earth. On being exhumed the dry grass had 
not been consumed, nor charred, but adhered to the meteor- 
ite when it was taken out. Another small piece fell on a 
straw stack but did not set it on fire. This goes to show 
that the heat experienced by a meteorite when it falls is but 
momentary, and affects only the surface. It is intense, and 
fuses the matter of the meteorite superficially forming a 
glassy "black crust" which is well known ; and it goes also 
to show that such channels and furrows as observed on the 
Willamette meteorite can scarcely be attributed to heat and 
friction of the air at the time of the fall. It is difficult to 
understand why, if these phenomena be due to the heat and 
friction of compressed air during the passage of the mass 
through the air, they are confined to the rear surfaces of the 
mass. It would be reasonable to expect to see the effect of 
-compressed air at the point of greatest compression, i. e., the 
front side of the mass, but they are entirely wanting on the 
front. They are most abundant on the rear flat surface. 
Again it is difficult to understand why an iron mass 
should be corroded and rusted out, in the manner assumed 
Dy Dr. Ward, by atmospheric air and water after it fell. 
He assumes that initial rusting points extended themselves 
so as to form basins and cavities such as seen on the base 
of this meteorite, the carbonated water once gathered in the 
depression having eaten into the iron deeper and deeper, 
expanding its basin on all sides as it goes down. It would 
be germane to inquire, under that hypothesis, (i) Why the 
depressions, were not filled with iron rust instead of soil, 
when they were discovered? (2) If the mass was uniform 
iron, as presumed by this hypothesis, why was it not uni- 
formly rusted all over the surface, even the upper (originally 
upper) surface which was slightly "crowning" so as to shed 
water? (3) Why was the edge of the flange eaten into, and 
even cut entirely through from top to bottom in a few places 
and not on all sides evenly? (4) Why were those cavities 
and channels which open on the conical surface and do not 
