The Opelousas courier., 1902-03-08
DlSSEcTING A M:TEOR.
Government Geologist's Description of
Stone from Heaven.

N"oVefnn1enC GeOlog ist's Description OF u
Stone from Heaven.
Professor George P. Merrili, curator
Of the department of geology of the
National Museum, who is engaged in
making a chemical analysis of the
specimen known as Ardmore meteorite,
has recently issued a statement con-
corning a stormy meteorite which fell
near Felix, Perry county, Ala, on May
10, 1900. This meteorite, says the
Washington Times, has many points
of resemblance to the Ardmore meteor
lite, which latter stone contains an ele-
ment SO difficult of classification as to
lead many scientists to believe that
Professor Merrill is on the point Of
discovering a e mineral. Professor
Merrill, however, does not share this
belief, thinking that under further ex-
animation the battling constituent will
prove to be a known quantity.
Fol the details concerning the fall
of the Alabama meteor, as we'll as for
securing the specimen itself, the Ma
tional Museum is indebted to J. W.
Coleman, who visited the locality and
obtained the statements of eye wit
nesses. Professor Merrill describes the
general appearance of the stone as fol-
lows:
$50 far as can be learned-a part Of
the information being obtained by Mr..
Coleman from negroes-the stone at
the time Of the explosion broke into
three pieces, the larger of which was
the one brought to Mr.. S~turdevant, and
which is said to have originally
weighed about seven pounds, as al
ready noted. Another small piece was
found, but has disappeared, and the
third, If UGH there was, was never
found. The stone, as obtained by Mr..
Coleman, was broken into five pieces,
which weighed altogether 2049 grams.
It was about Is centimetres in its
greatest length by nine in breadth, and
about the same thickness, and was
covered, except where broken, by a
very thin black crust, nowhere more
than half a millimetre in thickness.
The color on the broken surfaces Is
dark smoky gray, almost black. It is
very fine grained, with numerous small
dark chondrules, not more than one to
two millimetres in diameter at most,
and with no metallic iron visible to
the naked eye. Tue mass is quite soft
and friable, and resembles in a gen.
eral way the stones Of Warrenton,
Warren county, Mo-, and Lance,
France, more closely than those of any
other locality with which the author
is acquainted.
1.-THE color is, however, darker than
is the Warren county stone, and the
chondritic structure more pronounced
than in that Of Lance. It is, moreover,
uniformly gray in color, and not
speckled with white, as is the last
named. Under the microscope the stone
is seen at once to belong to the chon-
dritic type, as is indeed evident on
close inspection by the naked eye. The
essential minerals are Divine, augite
and enstatite, with troilite and native
iron, the silicates occurring In the form
of chondrules or associated in more or
less fragmental particles, embedded In
a dark, Opaque Or family translucent
base, which is irresolvabie, SO far as
the microscope is concerned. The
structure is pronouncedly fragmental,
and the stone belongs beyond question
to the group Of tufts"
After a careful and minute investiga-
ton into the microscopic structure 81
the specimen Professor Merrill deter
mined the mineralogic composition to
be as follows: Metal, 3.04 percent; troll
lite, 4.76; chromite, LIT; graphite,
0.36; soluble silicate (olivine in part),
1850; insoluble silicate (enstatite and
augite In part), 1907.