50 
EASTMAN. 
the village blacksmiths in some parts of Mexico have used 
fragments cut from meteoric masses for making horseshoes 
and agricultural implements as they would use the ordinary 
bar-iron of commerce, giving it the preference above other 
iron because of its extreme toughness and durability. The 
recent experiments in the use of nickel-steel plates to resist 
the action of modern high-power guns would seem to con¬ 
firm the experience of the country blacksmith. 
From the nature of the material and from the absence of 
any definite proof, it seems unlikely that these various masses 
of meteoric iron have been produced by tearing any large 
mass of iron into fragments. 
On the other hand, it is highly probable that a meteoric 
mass like that which fell in Iowa county, Iowa, on February 
12, 1875, is the true type of the meteorite which reaches the 
earth from outer space. This meteorite is composed almost 
wholly of stony matter, but scattered all through the mass 
are small grains of iron containing sufficient nickel so that 
the iron surfaces have not tarnished since they were polished 
soon after the body struck the earth. There seems to be no 
valid objection to the theory that these specimens of nickel- 
iferous iron may exist in the stony matrix in all forms and 
sizes, from the microscopic nodule to the mass weighing 
several tons. Whenever the stony mass with a high velocity 
comes in contact with the earth’s atmosphere the sudden and 
intense heat developed, together with the shock of impact, 
breaks up the less tenacious matrix, sets free the iron bodies, 
and they reach the earth in nearly the same condition, so 
far as mass and figure are concerned, as they existed in the 
original formation. In such cases it is probable that the 
stony portion of the original body is rent into such minute 
fragments by the explosion, due to unequal heating and to 
collision with the atmosphere, that they would not reach the 
earth in any appreciable size. The larger the masses of iron 
the more complete would be the destruction of the original 
body, and the larger stony meteorites would be those that 
contain the smaller granules of iron. 
