PETROLOGY: G. P. MERRILL . PROC. N. A. S.

should have lain in the ground since 1874, the date of the original Mejil-lones. The label states plainly fell-("caido") in 1905. On the suppositionthat this is an error, is it possible that this mass is the original Mejillonesdescribed by Domeyko, from which was broken the 167 grams, now in theParis Museum and that the large mass described was Vaca Muerta?Farrington5 has called attention to the fact that nearly if not quite all ofthe so-called Mejillones iron in the various museums is really Vaca Muerta.

1 Published by permission of the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution.* U. S. N. M. Catalogue, No. 725.2 Mem. Nat. Acad. Sci., 14, 1916.** U. S. N. M. Cat. No. 734.3 C. R. Paris, ASc. Sci., 81, 1875, p. 597.4Proc. U. S.- Nat. Mus., 61, Art. 4, 1922.5 Meteoric Studies I, P. 119.

ON A METEORIC IRON FROM FOUR CORNERS, SAN JUANCOUNTY, NEW MEXICO

By GZORGs P. M1RRILL

UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM

Communicated May 16, 1924

The attention of the writer was first brought to this interesting meteoriteby a letter from the late R. C. Hills, the well known mining geologist ofDenver, Colorado. In this he says: "I have a meteorite weighing aboutfifty-five pounds* * . It is almost a pallasite, but not quite. I havenamed it Four Corners, because there is no town near the location of thefind, which is said to be 15 miles southeast from the common corner ofColorado, New Mexico, Arizona and Utah. I have suggested to the Trus-tees 6f the Museum [i.e., the Colorado Museum of Natural HistpDy, inDenver] that it be sent to you to cut up, 'analyze and describe," etc!This proposition on the part of Mr. Hills has now been carried otit with

the results given below.The meteorite as received has much the form of a water-worn boulder

(see Plate 1) without deep pittings, two of the surfaces being rough asthough broken during flight. The smooth "nose" was deeply incised,as with a steel chisel. The dimensions were approximately 16.5 X 26.5X 26.5 cm. and weight 25 kilograms; that given by Mr. Hills (55 lbs.)-was shown by reweighing to be correct. The name Four Corners will beretained, as sufficiently distinctive, there being no other instance of itskind within the present limits of the United States. The direction given,

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VPETROLOG Y: G. P. MERRILL

PLATE 1The Four Corners meteorite in reversed positions.

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-314 PETROLOGY: C. P. MERRILL PRkoc. N. A. S.'

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PETROLOGY: G. P. MERRILL

i.e., 15 miles southeast, will however throw it into the extreme northwesternpart of San Juan County, New Mexico.The structure as shown in Plate 2 is quite different from that of any

meteorite which I have personally examined. The metal it will beobserved predominates, but is filled with dark irregular large and smallenclosures up to 15 mm. in diameter which on examination prove to be veryfine grained crystalline granular aggregates of pyroxenes with a littleolivine, often considerable amounts of iron phosphide and sulphide, anda few feldspathic granules and particles of calcium phosphate. Theseenclosures are distributed throughout the mass in form of mere sand grainsor angular masses up to the dimensions given. In thin section under themicroscope they show occasional clustered aggregates suggestive of chon-drules, one of which is shown in Figure 1, Plate 3. The pyroxenic constitu-ents are nearly colorless enstatite and bright green diopside. It is to benoted that these enclosures are always angular and plainly fragmental.The metal itself etched with either bromine or nitric acid quickly turns darkgray but shows no other signs of oxidation. It is noteworthy that eachmetallic area, varying from 10 to 20 mm. in diameter shows its own crys-tallographic orientation as indicated by the Widmanstatten figures.This feature will again be referred to. (See fig. 2, Plate 3.) Bands ofwickel-kamacite so characteristic of pallasites are here wholly lacking.The plessite areas are usually small, the taenite distinct, though havinglittle relief on the etched surface. Schreibersite in small granular aggre-gates usually associated with the silicate enclosures is not uncommon.Troilite in small particles associated with and distributed throughout thesilicates is abundant, but there are none of the rounded nodular forms socommon in meteoric irons. Small particles of metal, it should be stated,occur irregularly throughout the silicate fragments.A characteristic sample of the meteorite, (one in which the silicate por-

tions were so distributed as to be representative of the meteorite as a whole)was submitted to Dr. J. E. Whitfield with the following results:

MSTAL.LIC PORTIONPERCENT This, it will be observed, agrees well

Silicon ..... 0.152 with the analyses of the fine octa-Sulphur ..... 0.021 hedrite of Perryville, Missouri' orPhosphorus .... .0.147 the metal from the Krasnojarsk pal-Copper........ 0.035 2Nickel ..... 9.575 lasite as given by Whitfield.2 TheCobalt ..... 0.590 silicate portion yielded 47.16% sol-Carbon... .. 0.201 uble in dilute hydrochloric acid andIron ..... 89.300 52.84% insoluble. The soluble por-

- tion contained the olivine, doubtlessa portion of the feldspar, the cal-

316 PROC. N. A. S.

cium phosphate and the iron sulphide. An accident prevented its complete

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PETROLOGYY: G. P. MERRILL

analysis. The insoluble portion, a mixture of the two pyroxenes andfeldspar, yielded as follows: PSRCSNT

The specific gravity of a 425-gram Silica (SiO2).......*.62.57slice selected as typical of the mass Alumina (A20) ......... 9.37

mLime (CaO) ........... 3.54was 6.62. Of a small piece of the Magnesia (MgO)....... 19.77metal, free from silicate enclosures, Ferrous iron (FeO) .

1.277.88. Carbon (graphitic) ..... 3.46

The whole aspect of this meteoriteis unusual and difficult to explain. 9998It is obvious that the silicates'could not have crystallized out of a highlyferriferous magma in their present form. Their ragged and angular shapesare wholly against this, nor can they be considered merely as fragmentscaught up in a molten metallic magma, as has been suggested, since theyshow no evidences whatever of corrosion. They might perhaps be ac-counted for by assuming-them to be products of disintegration from apreviously existing finely granular siliceous stone, the particles from whichbecame admixed with some ferriferous compound reducible at temperaturesconsiderably below the normal melting point of iron, as long ago suggestedby Meunier. The fact that the individual plates of the iron, as pre-viously noted and as brought out by etching are of limited extent insteadof being continuous over considerable areas, as in ordinary octahedraliron, suggests however a one time coarsely granular mass of metallic andsilicate fragments, since compressed. Just how much reliance can beplaced upon such a suggestion is perhaps doubtful, since any crystallineaggregate, as of calcite or feldspar will show a like diversity in crystallo-graphic orientation.The closest analogue of this iron would appear to be that of Copiapo

(Dheesa) Chile described by Haidinger,3 Daubree4 and Meunier5 but ofwhich unfortunately our Museum has no sample for comparison. Ananalysis of the metallic portion of the Copiapo fall by Dr. E. Dittler, asgiven by Berwerth6 yielded: Fe 87.40, Ni 11.97, Co 0.56, schreibersite 0.07.The silicate analysis given by Meunier points unmistakably to olivine,and pyroxene as the chief constituents. The similarity of the two isalso shown by Meunier's Figure 39 in the work cited.7The Four Corners meteorite cannot be made to conform readily with

any existing and generally accepted scheme of classification. Mr. Hillsdescribed it as "almost a pallasite," but it is not like any known memberof this group. From its nearest approximate, the pallasites of the Rokickygroup, it differs in that in the latter the siliceous portion consists whollyof large olivine blebs in a more or less fragmental condition, while in theFour Corners the inclusions are rock fragments of a complex nature. Themeteorite is really a breccia composed of fragments of a fine grained, py-

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CHEMISTRY: BOGERT AND BERGEIM

roxenic rock with an excess of cementing material in the form of coarsegranular nickel-iron. In this respect it differs from the Kodai Kanal irondescribed by Berwerth, in which the silicate fragments are crystalline se-cretions from a ferriferous magma. Viewed in this light it would then seembest to class it with the Copiapo (Dheesa) fall as a granular octahedraliron with silicate enclosures.

I Proc. U. S. Nat. Museum, 43, 1912, pp. 595-597.2 Handbook Meteorite Collections, U. S. N. M., p. 93.3 Sitz. Akad. Wiss. Wien., 49, 1864, p. 490.I C. R. Acad. Sci., Paris, 66, 1868, p. 571.6 Meteorites, (Fremy's Encyclopedie Chimique), 1884, p. 152.6 Tschermak's Min. Pet. Mittheil, 34, 1917, p. 272.7 There being no available slices for comparison a portion of the Four Corners meteor-

ite, shown in pi. 2 was sent to Dr. Meunier, from whom was received a reply of which thefollowing is an abstract:

"La photographie que vous m'avex envoyee de votre m6t6orite metamor-phique que vous comparez si vraisembleblement a la pierre de Deesa, est re-marquable par sa nettet6 et par son eloquence; on y voit que l'alliage metal-lique a fait eruption an travers d'un banc de roche grisatre ordinari et la noireejusqu' au coeur de la substance, le metal s'est consolid6 tres tranquellement cequi lui a permis de presider a la cristallization de aiguilles et de lamelles acomposition chemique parfaitement definie. Votre echantillon est des pluspreceux pour prouver de communnat6 de gisementide different types de meteor-ites dans une masse apporte parun seul bolide conformenent a l'opinion queJ'ai developpee."Meunier, April 21, 1924.

THE CONSTITUTION OF COLUMBIA YELLOW (CHLORAMINEYELLOW)

By MARSTON TAYLOR BOGERT AND FRANK H. BZRGZIM

ORGANIc LABORATORIZS, COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY

Read before the Academy, April 29, 1924

Columbia Yellow, or Chloramine Yellow, Schultz No. 617, rejoices inat least a dozen different names and is marketed in various brands. Allare manufactured by the action of sodium hypochlorite upon the sodiumsulfonate of dehydrothio-p-toluidine (NN type), of primuline (B type),or of mixtures of the two (FF type), the shades varying accordingly and thedifferent brands betokening this. Among the direct cotton colors, it isconspicuous for its excellent fastness to light, chlorine and alkali.The fact that the dye was produced by alkaline oxidation of a primary

aromatic amine, and that the product no longer contained a diazotizableamino group, led to the belief that it was probably of azo or azoxy type.But certain peculiarities of behavior, notably its resistance to either ox-

318 IPROC. N., A. S.

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