River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1905-01-26
PEARY'S GREAT METEORITE
Mammoth Metal Body from the
Heavens Discovered by the
Arctic Explorer.

The largest, heaviest and most inter-
esting meteorite ever discovered was the
| 371a-ton chunk of iron and nickel and
! cobalt brought to the Brooklyn navy
| yard by Lieut.. Peary's latest arctic ex-
petition, and recently dragged through
the streets of New York by 81 horses to
be deposited at the main entrance of the
american Museum of Natural History.
There, on massive pedestal reaching
clear down to bed rock, this extraordi-
nary celestial visitor, an awe-inspiring
spectacle Of the stupendous missiles
Whlr1lng through space, rests in it's last
abiding place. Like a real ghost, come
to take permanent residence in order to
prove vague, CHASTITY superstitions, so
! this mammoth Greenland meteorite
stands-12 feet long, eight feet high and
six feet thick-as if to verify the declar-
| ations of science that all about us are
stars and planets and heavenly bodies
consisting of minerals and metals iden-
teal with those composing our own
earth.
Fascinating though this meteorite is
to the scientists, no less is it to laymen
throughout the world, for the part which
/ this huge bowlder of metal had in main
| tanning human life on Greenlands most
barren shore lends an interest which no
other natural curiosity can have.
One of the earliest puzzles to arctic
| explorers was the fact that the knives,
the harpoons and the other Eskimo
hunting implements so necessary to the
native of the frozen north were made Of
iron.
From the Iron mountains we get our
iron," the natives explained to Capt
Ross as far back as 1918, and from that
day to 1896, when Lieut.. Peary succeeded
in locating the mountains" one of the
most perplexing things to arctic ex-
plorers was the location of the mysteri-
Gus source of supply.
Like many other scientific object OF
search, the Iron mountains" were dis
! covered by Peary chiefly through acct
dent, says Raymond Porter, in Pear
sons Magazine. Nine years ago he hap
| pened to be staying over night in an
Eskimo village on Whale sound, when
he came across an "oodoo"-a knife
used by Eskimo women. The knife was
an exceedingly primitive affair, con-
sisting of five pieces Of iron fastened to-
gether with thongs.
Where did you get this?" Peary
asked of the woman.
"From the great Iron mountains
answered the hostess. cts very old.
I never saw another like it; but old men
in the tribe say that years and years
| ago, before the whalers brought us
| knives and blades and harpOOn heads,
these knives were the only ones used
by our people"
Peary investigated further, was d.
rected to the ice-bound body Of water
known as Melville bay, and, guided by
an Eskimo hunter named Tellikotinah,
was led to three enormous powders or
iron, meteorites, known to the natives
respectively as the Dog" the ''Wom-
an" and the ''Tent." Here, then, was
where for centuries the natives had
gotten their iron; for, despite almost
century's ravages Of arctac elements, the
fint-hard surfaces of the masses still
showed where natives had labored pa
tiently, breaking and wearing away
chunks and sections of the stone to be
transformed into heads for harpoonS
and other hunting implements.