Editorial Comment. 257 
The "furrows" that appear on the brustseite which are 
referred by Dr. Ward to the heat and friction of the atmos- 
phere, are generally shallower than those on the lower sur- 
face. There is no question that such a mass of iron in fall- 
ing through the atmosphere would lose a considerable 
amount of its surface by heat and friction. The brilliant 
trail which is well known to mark the course of a meteorite 
in falling through the air attests the loss of matter from the 
meteorite. But it would be very singular if, during the 
short interval of time occupied by the descent, the air 
should make such selective "gougings" as are seen on this 
meteorite. 
We cannot perhaps satisfactorily account for the shal- 
lower forms of the depressions referred by Dr. Ward to 
atmospheric pressure and heat seen on the upper side of 
the iron ; but it seems to the writer that they were also once 
occupied by the same minerals as above mentioned, and 
that an earlier period in the history of the mass had worn 
them down or cut them off uniformly with the surface of 
the iron so that when they entered the earth's atmosphere 
these depressions in the iron surface existed but were filled 
with smaller remnants of the stony matter. It is useless to 
inquire into the earlier history of this mass, but it must be 
admitted that it parted from some mass like itself, and its 
troilite masses must have been rent asunder whenever the 
plane of separation crossed them. Thus some of the troil- 
ites at the present surface may have been shallower than 
others. Further these shallow depressions are not confined 
to the brustseite, nor the deep ones to the rear surface. If 
they were thus distributed there would be more force in Dr. 
Ward's assumption. 
It is needless to say that this iron constituted the .most 
wonderful single object in the mining building. It is the 
largest meteorite ever found in the'United States, and ac- 
cording to Dr. Ward the fourth largest known to science. 
We cannot but sympathize with those Oregon scientists 
who wish to have it remain in the state of Oregon, rather 
than see it transported to some eastern museum. 
