lar and tabular crystals, besides black octahedrons of magnetite. The microscopic investigation of Mr. Dana proves that they actually are like the lavas in constitution, and that the crystals are of pyroxene and feldspar as in the ejected blocks.

The origin of the stalactites of the tunnels and their crystallizations is due, as I state in my Expedition Report (p. 201), to "the action of steam on the roof of the cavern." In the case of the tunnels the flowing lavas left behind a chamber filled with superheated steam, and under its action the solution and recrystallization went forward.

This reproduction of the basalt and the making of the crystals in geodes, or as linings of fissures, are examples of metamorphic work. It is metamorphism of the crystallinic kind*, the same which takes place when a feldspathic sandstone is converted into granite or granulyte, or when calcyte is changed into marble; and it is therefore one of the common kinds of metamorphism.

4. The ejected blocks about Kilauea instruct us on another point of much geological importance. They show that the throat of a volcano is necessarily a region of metamorphic action. It is a region of continued heat; and heat always works change when moisture is present. Under such conditions, therefore, an Archæan limestone or other Archæan rock containing chondrodite, spinel, vesuvianite, scapolite, anorthite, nephelite, biotite, might lead to the production of recrystallized chondrodite (humite), spinel, vesuvianite, scapolite (meionite), anorthite, nephelite, biotite (or meroxene) as metamorphic results; and in just the situation where an explosive eruption might detach masses and bring them up to the light. It is noteworthy that the above minerals of the ejected blocks about Somma, which have long been regarded as throat minerals of Vesuvius, crystallized by the volcanic heat as held by Scacchi, are kinds that are characteristic of Archæan rocks and especially of an Archæan limestone, rocks which may underlie the later limestones and other strata. There is little assumption therefore in saying that some of these crystallizations illustrate specifically crystallinic metamorphism, though others may be of the metachemic kind, that is, products of chemical change

From the side of a fissure near the bottom of the emptied basin of the lava-lake called the "Old Beggar," was taken, at my visit in August, 1887, a specimen as large as the hand, covered with minute white tabular crystals, with some transparent crystals of acicular form. The mineral turned out to be gypsum, common as an incrustation in Kilauea caves.

*"On terms applied to metamorphism," this Journal, III, xxxii, 70, 1886.

III. THE FORM OF MT. LOA A CONSEQUENCE OF ITS Eruptions.

Mt. Loa differs from almost all other volcanic mountains in having a double curvature in its profile, owing to the flattening and widening of its summit, and the spreading of its base. It is the flattened summit which gives so vast bulk to a mountain of its altitude.

This peculiarity I attributed in my Expedition Report, to the positions of the prevailing outflows, on the ground that discharges of lavas about the base tend to widen and flatten the base and give a single concavity to the profile on either side; that discharges at the summit, especially if in short streams, serve to elevate the summit and make still more pronounced the single concavity; but that discharges over the upper slopes and not over the summit, tend to widen the upper part and flatten the summit so as to produce a convexity in the profile

above.

The outflows of the century have had the distribution required to produce the actual form. Part are basal; another large part start just below the summit, and none of much size from the vicinity of the summit crater. The double curvature so produced, however, is mostly confined to the eastward and southsouthwestward slopes, the chief directions of expansion by basal outflows; moreover, the widening in the former direction owes much, beyond doubt, to the eruptions of Kilauea. Further: owing to the absence nearly of cinder-ejections, the summit fails of the most common means of growth in height with tapering top; and this is a prominent source of the difference between it and most other volcanic mountains.

Another cause tending to modify the shape of the mountain is that producing fractures and subsidences. Its effects are seen about the great craters, and still more pronounced about the borders of the island. The former action aids in making summits broad and flat, while the latter works directly against the widening of the coast region. It makes the greatest fractures, nearly parallel with the coast and drops the coastward block; it thus tends to shorten the radius of that part of the mountain_and put precipices into its profiles, increasing thereby the mean slope.. Two such walls in southern Hawaii, cross the road between Keauhou and Kilauea, one about a mile and a half from the coast and the other three miles; they are marked features before the traveler in his ride from the coast to the volcano. These faultings seem to be a reason for the concavity in the southern coast-line from Keauhou westward, and for the short distance in that direction between the summit and the coast. Other great fault-planes exist; but the government map of the island should be completed before the facts can be satisfactorily discussed.

Sagging from pressure and consequent crushing has been made a cause of a single concavity between the top and the base of a volcanic mountain, and mathematical calculation has found a conformity between physical law and the shapes of such mountains in Japan and America. But there can be no crushing from gravitational pressure in a mountain made almost solely of lava; and it is hardly a possible result in any existing cone if made up even one-half of lava-streams, braced as they are by dikes.

The following are the mean slopes of Mt. Loa from the summit along different radii. The distances made the basis of the calculations are taken from the Government map :

S.S.W. to the southern cape

S.E. by S. to the indented Kapapala shore
S.E. to foot of slope W. of Kilauea

E.N.E. to shore at Hilo

W. by S. to western shore

1: 13·1=4° 22'

1:9=6° 20'

1:9∙12=6° 15' 1:14·86=3° 51'

1:8·11=6° 43'

N. by E. to plain between Loa and Kea 1 : 9 to 1:10=5° 50′ to 6°

In a circle of five miles around the summit crater the mean slope is about 3°: the mean depression to the eastward at the perimeter of the circle is about 1400 feet.

From Kilauea to the eastern cape, 28 miles, the slope is 1:36 =1° 35'.

The fact that Mt Loa as well as Kilauea were made over a great fissure has given an oblong and approximately elliptical or ovoidal form to all the upper contour lines of Mt. Loa. Further, the bend in the longer axis of the summit crater, making the concavity to the eastward, is also expressed, according to the large government map, in the form of the upper part of the dome.

At what period in its history, Mt. Loa left off superfluent discharges and took to having only the effluent, or those through fissures, it is impossible to say. But as the walls both of Ki lauea and the summit crater are made up of the edges of lavastreams to the very top, it would appear that summit overflows from the crater may have continued in each to a comparatively recent time. It is remarkable that the north and west walls of Kilauea, which show well the stratification from top to bottom, have almost no intersecting dikes.

In the following paper, the relations of the Kilauea volcano to Mt. Loa will be considered, and the question as to the effects of volcanoes on the depths of the ocean.

[To be continued.]

ART. XII.

The Fayette County, Texas, Meteorite; by J. E. WHITFIELD and G. P. MERRILL.*

THE meteorite described below was found some ten years ago at Bluff, a settlement on the Colorado River about three miles southwest of the town of LaGrange, in Fayette county, Texas. Bluff cannot boast of being a village as it is simply made up of a few farms scattered within a radius of two miles. The farmers are mostly Germans or Bohemians, and as they are generally of the superstitious class, it is not strange that the finder, a Bohemian, named Raniosek, should have been struck by the appearance of the stone, and especially by its weight. As it is probable that he never heard of such a thing as a meteorite it is safe to say that he did not know the nature of his find; still he seems to have come to the conclusion that it was something foreign to the soil.

There is a tradition in Fayette County that Santa Anna, at the time of his flight after the battle of San Jacinto, buried his war-treasures somewhere near LaGrange, and the belief has so fixed itself in the minds of the inhabitants that many fruitless attempts have been made to discover it. The finder of the meteorite, with the tradition fresh in his mind, reasoned that so large and heavy a stone must mark the place where some treasure was deposited; he therefore rolled the stone a few feet aside and dug a deep hole at the exact spot where the stone had been, without finding anything to pay him for his labor.

For several years the stone lay where the Bohemian had left it; then he sold the piece of land to Mr. C. Hensel, who still owns it; but before the latter had taken possession, Raniosek removed the stone to his own farm, about a mile away, where for five years more it lay neglected in his yard. His reason for removing it was that its weight led him to suspect it contained some valuable metal.

About three years ago Mr. H. Hensoldt took charge of the school at Cedar, two and one-half miles from Bluff settlement. By spending his spare time in hunting over the ground for fossils, minerals, etc., the attention of the farmers was drawn to him, and in January, 1888, he was informed of the strange stone in Mr. Raniosek's yard. Immediately on seeing it he recognized it as a meteorite, and a very fine specimen of its kind. After obtaining possession of the stone Mr. Hensoldt disposed of it to Messrs. Ward and Howell, of Rochester, N. Y., * The chemical work was done in the laboratory of the U. S. Geological Survey; the petrographical work in the laboratory of the U. S. National Museum. AM. JOUR. SCI.-THIRD SERIES, VOL. XXXVI, No. 212.-AUGUST, 1888.

to whom we are indebted for the material for study and the privilege of description. On receiving the stone, Mr. Howell published a notice in Science (Feb. 3, 1888, p. 55) putting it on record as the "LaGrange Meteorite," but on finding that this name had already been applied to the Oldham County, Kentucky, meteorite, agreed that it should be called the Fayette County Meteorite.

The stone possesses all the characteristics of a meteorite. The pittings are well marked, but the crust shows only in the deeper depressions; a freshly fractured surface shows, besides the grains of metal, a greenish gray appearance not unlike some greenstones. A particularly interesting feature of the stone is the presence of a few dark-colored veins varying greatly in dimensions-the one in the specimen for examination being some 2mm in greatest width, and 60mm in length.

The three dimensions of the mass are 58cm×46cm×28cm, and the total weight about 146 kilos. A good idea of the appearance of the meteorite may be had from figure 1.

Before the specimen was 'pulverized for analysis the vein was carefully sawed out so as to keep all the vein material from the mass. The rock was then ground as fine as possible, and a portion (1 gr.) treated with iodine in cold water, to separate the metallic particles. The residue was filtered on a Gooch soluble filter and washed free of iodine. The rocky material after being weighed was treated with dilute hydrochloric acid and allowed to stand for some time, then filtered and the residue weighed. In both cases the mineral being separated from the filter by using the proper solvent for the anthracenewashed with ether and alcohol and dried at 100° C. This temperature not being sufficient to drive all the water from the mineral part accounts for the discrepancy of about 2 per cent.

The following figures will show the composition of the metal and the rock, soluble and insoluble, in hydrochloric acid; also the results of a complete analysis of the total mass: