The commonwealth. (Greenwood, Miss.) 1896-1923, 1905-10-13
PEARY's GREAT METEoRITE
Eskimos Had Long Used It as Source
Of Iron Supply for Their Knives
and Harpoons.


The largest, heaviest and most
interesting meteorite ever discov.
cred was the 374-ton chunk of iron
and nickel and cobalt brought to
the Brooklyn navy yard by Lieut..
Peary's latest arctic expedition,
and recently dragged through the
streets of New York by "a horses
to be deposited at the main en-
trance of the American museum
Of natural history, says Raymond
Porter, in Parsons Magazine.
There, on a massive pedestal,
reaching clear down to bedrock.
this extraordinary celestial visi.
tor, an awe-inspiring spectacle of
the stupendous missiles whirling
through space, rests in its last
abiding-place. Like a real ghost,
come to take permanent residence
in order to prove vague, CHASTITY
superstitions, so the mammoth
Greenland meteorite stands-12
feet long, eight feet high and six
feet thick-as if to verify the dec,
larations of science that all about
us are stars and planets and heav.
emily bodies consisting of minerals
and metals identical with those
composing our own earth.
Fascinating though this mete.
orlte is to the scientists, no less
so is it to laymen throughout the
world, for the part which this
huge bowlder of metal had in
maintaining human life on Green.
lands most barren shore lends an
interest which no other natural
curiosity can have. One of the
earliest puzzles to arctic explor,
ers was the fact that the knives
and harpoons and the other Eski.
me hunting Implements so neces.
sary to the native of the frozen
north were made of iron.
"From the Iron mountains we
get our iron," the natives ex.
planned to Capt. Ross as far back
as 1918, and from that day to 1895,
when Lieut.. Peary succeeded in
locating the mountains" one of
the most perplexing things to arc
tic explorers was the location OF
the mysterious source of supply.
Like many another scientific OBJ.
ject of search, the 'Iron noun.
tains" were discovered by Peary
chiefly through accident. Nine
years ago he happened to be stay.
ing over night in an Eskimo vii,
lage on Whale sound, when he
came across an "oodoo"-a knife
used by Eskimo women. The knife
was an exceedingly primitive af.
fair, consisting of five pieces of
iron fastened together with
thongs.
"Where did you get this? ?"
Peary asked of the woman.
"From the great Iron noun.
tains, answered the hostess.
"lt's very old. | never saw an.
other 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
directed 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 of iron.
meteOrites, known to the natives
respectively as the "Dog," the
"Woman" and the "Tent." Here,
then, was where for centuries the
natives had gotten their iron; for,
despite almost acentury's ravages
of arctic elements, the fint-hard
surfaces of the masses still
showed where natives had labored
patiently, breaking and wearing
away chunks and sections of the
stone, to be transformed into
heads for harpoons and other
hunting implements.
Waters of the Rhine.
A German geographer calls al.