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UNITED STATES NATIONIAL MUSEUM
Bulletin 94

HANDBOOK AND DESCRIPTIVE CATALOGUE OF THE METEORITE COLLECTIONS IN THE UNITED STATES NATIONIAL MUSEUM

by GEORGE P. MERRILL
Head Curator of Geology, United States Nationial Museum

Washington. Government printing office 1916.


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Contents
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Preface
List of Plates

Part I. Introduction

Part II.
Museum collection, alphabetical list and descriptions; [ pick a letter to start at ]
A    B    C    D    E    F    G    H    I    J    K    L    M    N    O    P    Q    R    S    T    U    V    W    X    Y    Z   
list of casts

Shepard collection, alphabetical list and description.

Appendix A. Moldavites, Billitonites, and other glasses of supposed meteoric origin.

Appendix B. Examples or metallic iron, in part alloyed with nickel, in terrestrial rocks.


ADVERTISEMENT.

The scientific publications of the United States National Museum consist of two series, the Proceedings and the Bulletins. The Proceedings, the first volume of which was issued in 1878, are intended primarily as a medium for the publication of original, and usually brief, papers based on the collections of the National Museum, presenting newly acquired facts in zoology, geology, and anthropology, including descriptions of new forms of animals, and revisions of limited groups. One or two volumes are issued annually and distributed to libraries and scientific organizations. A limited number of copies of each paper, in pamphlet form, is distributed to specialists and others interested in the different subjects, as soon as printed. The date of publication is printed on each paper, and these dates are also recorded in the table of contents of the volumes. The Bulletins, the first of which was issued in 1875, consist of a series of separate publications comprising chiefly monographs of large zoological groups and other general systematic treatises (occasionally in several volumes), faunal works, reports of expeditions, and catalogues of type-specimens, special collections, etc. The majority of the volumes are octavos, but a quarto size has been adopted in a few instances in which large plates were regarded as indispensable.

Since 1902 a series of octavo volumes containing papers relating to the botanical collections of the Museum, and known as the Contributions from the National Herbarium, has been published as bulletins. The present work forms No. 94 of the Bulletin series.

RICHARD RATHBUN,
Assistant Secretary, Smithsonian Institution,
In charge of the United States National Museum.
WASHINGTON, D. C., March 29, 1916.


PREFACE.

The handbook and catalogue presented herewith is intended primarily for the use of the general public, but the subject matter is at the same time so arranged as to meet the needs of the student and Investigator as well, though naturally an exhaustive discussion of some of the more abstruse problems is omitted. The descriptive matter is most complete regarding falls of which the collections contain what is considered a fair representation. Indeed, the exhibition portion of the collection is limited to specimens of upwards of 50 grams in weight, all under this weight being relegated to the drawer or study series. The entire collection numbers at the time this catalogue goes to press 329 falls and finds, and is accompanied by an equal number of thin sections for microscopic study.

The bibliography is intentionally brief, reference being made only to such publications as have furnished the information given in the abstract. Wulfing's Die Meteoriten in Sammlungen und ihre Literatur, 1897, is believed to make greater elaboration unnecessary.

Since the issue of the two previous catalogues, that by Dr. F. W. Clarke in 1889, and that by Mr. Wirt Tassin in 1902, the entire collection has been re-catalogued, independent of the mineral collection of which it had previously been considered a part, and is now treated as belonging more properly to petrology.

Inasmuch as the Shepard collection is given a case by itself, it has been thought advisable to list it here independently, as was done in Doctor Clarke's catalogue of 1889. That collection comprises 234 falls and finds, of which 83 are not represented in the National Museum collection proper. The combined collections, therefore, number 412 independent falls and finds.
JANUARY 1, 1916.


LIST OF PLATES.
note...The original printed handbook included the plates at various points, either one or two to four at a time. I have instead seperated them from the text. CDROM editor
Plate.
1...Casas Grandes, Tucson, and Canon Diablo irons
2...Microstructure of (1) Juvinas and (2) Shergotty stones
3...Microstructure of (1) El Nakhla stone and (2) Estherville
4...Microstructure of (1) Estacado and (2) Selma stones
5...Microstructure of (1) Enstatite chondrule in Elm Creek stone, (2) Enstatite chondrule in Hendersonville stone, (3) Enstatite chondrule in Coon Butte stone, (4) Enstatite chondrule in Tennasilm stone,. (5) Barred olivine chondrule in Beaver Creek stone
6...Microstructures showing (1) variations in size and form of chondrules in Cullison stone, (2) large oval chondrule in Tennasilm stone, (3) angular chondrule with border of metallic iron in Parnallee stone, and (4) clino-enstatite chondrulein Cullison stone.
7...Microstructure of (1) black crust on Allegan stone, and (2) of black vein in Bluff stone.
8...Two specimens of Admire pallasite, as found
9...Section of (I) metallic portion, and (2) polished slice of Admire pallasite.
10..Polished slices of (1) Ahumada pallasite, and (2) of Ainsworth iron.
11..Polished slice of (1) Brenham pallasite, and (2) the Allegan meteoric stone
12..Polished slice of (I) Canon Diablo iron, and (2) etched slice of Arispe iron.
13..Oxidized Canon Diablo iron, (1) as found, (2) sliced to show meta1lic nucleus.
14..Etched slice of Canon Diablo iron, showing numerous troilite nodu1es
15..Casas Grandes iron, weight 3,407 pounds
16..Etched slice of Casas Grandes iron.
17..(1) Canon Diablo iron, showing large cavity, and (2) Couch, Coahuila, or Sanchez Estate iron.
18..Two views of the Cullison stone, as found.
19..Polished slices of the Cullison stone, (1) enlarged about 5 diameters, (2) about two-thirds natural size, and (3) iron subphide capped at right by metallic iron.
20..Etched slices of (1) Kendall County, and (2) Coopertown irons
21..(1) Felix stone, as found, and (2) the third largest stone of the Fisher fall, weighing 1,300 grams.
22..Etched slice of Gibeon (Mukerop) iron
23..Two views of Hendersonville stone, as found
24..Microstructure of the Hendersonville stone
25..Complete individuals of (1) Holbrook and (2) Modoc stones..
26..Microstructure of the Indarch stone
27..Mount Vernon pallasite, as found
28..Polished slice of Mount Vernon pallasite
29..Front and reverse of Perryville iron, as found, about one-half natural size
30..Etched surfaces of Perryville iron, (1) enlarged about 2 diameters, and (2) magnified surface photographed under the microscope by reflected light
31..Polished surface of (1) Persimmon Creek, and (2) of Putnam County irons
32..Two views of the Rich Mountain stone
33..(1) Etched slice of Sacramento iron, (2) Dendritic schreibersite in Arispe iron, (3) Etched slice of Santa Rosa iron, showing numerous troilite nodules
34..Microstructure of the Selma stone, (I) showing microstructure and fragmental nature of olivine and enstatites, (2) chondrules of porphyritic olivine, and (3) chondrule of cryptocrystalline enstatite
35..View. of (1) Thomson stone, about three-fourths natural size, and (2) etched slice of Toluca iron.
36..Etched slice of (1) Willamette iron, and (2) of Tombigbee River iron, showing large schreibersite inclosures
37..Prof. Charles Upham Shepard (portrait)
38..Shepard collection of meteorites in the U. S. National Museum
39..(1) The Dalton iron and (2) New Concord stone, from the Shepard collection
40..Specimens of the Estherville mesosiderites, from the Shepard collection
41..Moldavites and similar sporadic glasses, (1-3) billitonites from the island of Billiton, (4-6) moldavites from Moldavia and Bohemia, and (7-9) australites and an obsidian button from Australia