The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1877-1885, 1880-05-13
Vbc Tarm.
Finding Of a Meteorite in a North Car
0lina Gravel Pit.

On the 10Th of last July, while Nj. Gray
w. Harris was prospecting for gold on ms
plantation near Lick creek, Davidson coun-
~, he found in a ditch a nugget of what
to him to be silver. 1t was COW
cred with a thick scaly crust Of iron oxide;
weighed two and three-fourth pounds: was
pearshaped, measured As by p inches over
its broadest surface and about / inch IN
thickness. Whenever cut or hammered 1T
showed a white metallic mass underlying
the red crust, and we cannot blame Mr..
Harris for concluding the mass to be silver;
more especially as it was a native metal and
no other metals but silver, plantinum and
gold are found native in such large masses.
Accordingly the story went far and far
wide that a 'three- pound nugget of silver
had been found in Davidson county"
Search was made for more nuggets"
bat unsuccessfully.
heard the story as above recorded from
Messrs. Robt. Eames, Jr, and Sr. of Thorn
~asville. In their opinion the nugget was
iron, perhaps native IRON
They had noticed that the nugget bad
what Mr.. Eames. Jr., aptly termed might
kweats.' Little beads Of moisture would
gather ON its surface when left for a few
hours, which, if wiped away, would soon
form again showing thereby that decomps-
sition was going on in the nugget. Tin all
probability the oxidation of its phosphides
ind sulphides.
This last and most important addition to
the ''silver nugget" story confirmed my
suspion of the mass being meteorlc iron, In
truth a meteor, whese coming and fall, had
not been observed. After no little outlay
of time and money it was finally brought
to New York and is now in the cabinet Of
the writer where it keeps company with
two others from the South collected within
the year. 1t contains iron, nickel, cobalt,
phosphorus. copper and carbon, iron large
~ predomigating. DIR. j. Lawrence Smith,
Of Louisville, KY, has. its analysis now in
hand and it will be published soon. 1t is
one of that rare class of meteorites that do
not show the Widmanstatten lines, and will
obtain a wide notoriety among scientific
men.
OTHER M~ETEORITIES.
North Carolina has been very prolific in
meteorities. No less than fifteen different
falls are recordnd and credited to this
State. Bamcombe, Haywood, Randolph,
Rockingham, Nash, Madison and Davidson
counties hive furnished meteorites. The
Nash county fall (1S74) was of stone, not of
troa.
In the last month l have heard of tive
new ones in this State and hove hopes of
soon bringing them to light.
The Charlotte Observer chronicles the
falling Of a meteor in Rowan county, in
February last, about which, we have as yet
heard nothing further. / ask, did it actu-
ally fell as recOrded2
Mete0ric iron in masses of extraordinary
size have been discovered in Brazil. The
1or~ocf ~oiuhS over siyfaen toms
A yet larger mass now exists In the Cas-
cade Mountain in Oregon, U. s., which,
when first discovered, was thought to be a
ledge of native iron. regret to write, it's
exact location is now lost
WHY THEY FALL.
It is now generally conceded, that these
strange bodies swing around the sun, like
So many miniature worlds and coming
under the attractive force of a larger plan
ct, fall to it. Theg come from regions in
tensely cold and only become heated, and
consequently luminous, in their short pas
sage through o ur atmosphere.
Kepler believes their are more small
bodies flying about in space than there are
tshes in The ocean, which seems to find
support in modern discoveries.
KILLED BY ETEOR
The story from Kansas, about a man
being killed by the falling of a meteor, has
been proven untrue by the village paper
published where it was said to have occur
red. The editor thought it 1.-The unkind-
est thing ever credited to the town" How
ever, people have been killed by meteorities.
Humboldt records a monk killed at Crema,
Sept. 4th. 1911; another monk at Milan in
1850; and two Swedish soldiers aboard
ship in 1914. Not once in one hundred
years will a human being meet his fate
from this cause; thousands of wears might
pass without such an accident happening.
RiRITY OF NATIVE IRON.
Terrestrial or native iron is Of extreme
rarity and is found only in very incOnsider-
able quantities. only in small grains in bas-
talic rocks and as an alloy with native
clatinum, Iridium.
1t is generally safe to conclude tina, any