[blam]

"It was a complete mystery to me, and I had to return it to Dr. Dillehay with no conjecture as to its origin or nature."

Discarded UFO part?

[Renfield]

No. I tried to think of some way that dissolved metallic minerals could have moved through groudwater and replaced the organic materials in a piece of wood, but couldn’t reconcile the minerals able to complete this proces (silicates) with the metallic image of the piece.