[meteorite-list] NPA 10-09-1897 Peary Decribes Cape York Meteorite Finding

[MARK BOSTICK]

Paper: Daily Northwestern
City: Oshkosh, Wisconsin
Date: Saturday, October 9, 1897
Page: 5

PEARY'S METEORITE

The Arctic Explorer Explains the Nature of His Discovery

     Lieut R. E. Peary, Arctic explorer, wore a thin suit of clothing and a 
frown, as he walking into the Wellington hotel, Chicago, early the other 
morning, and wrote his name in a back hand. "This Indian summer a la Chicago 
is too much for me," he said to the clerk. "I'd like to have just one breath 
of an Arctic breeze."  The lieutenant still felt the effects of his warm 
sleeping-car ride from Lansing, Mich., where he lectured last night.  
However, by nine o'clock he was hard at work on the lecture which he was to 
deliver that night in Central Music hall.  A question about the meteorite 
which he recently brought down from Greenland caused him to stop his work 
and to tug with both hands at his long red mustache.

     "Why, there isn't the slightest doubt as to these meteorites," he said. 
"Every scientific man who has seen them pronounces them meteorites.  The 
trouble is that people who have heard about the so-called meteorites which 
were discovered at Nordenskjold at once jump at the conclusion that the ones 
I found are not real because both discoveries were made in Greenland.  
People forget what a big country Greenland is, and that the point on 
Melville's bay where I made my discovery is fully 1,000 miles from 
Nordenskjold." The lieutenant grew enthusiastic as he described the 
composition of his meteorites.  "They are ninety-two per cent iron and eight 
per cent nickel." he said. "Otherwise these is not a trace of any other 
substance in them.  They can be taken just as they are, put in a smelter and 
made into armor plate."

     Lieutenant Peary described the discovery of these meteorites. "I was 
the first white man who ever saw them." he said. "That was in 1894.  I heard 
about them during my cruise in the Arctic seas.  There is a tradition among 
the native Esquimaux that the meteorites are a woman, her dog and her tent.  
The woman, it is said, was thrown out of heaven ages ago for some crime.  In 
1895 I took Prof. Rollin D. Salisbury of the University of Chicago with me 
to see the meteorites, and he at once pronounced them genuine.  He is one of 
the recognized authorities on geology in the country.  The largest of the 
meteorites, which is supposed to have been the tent in the Esquimaux 
tradition, weighs 100 tons.  It is twelve feet long, eight feet wide and six 
feet high. The others I brought back in 1895. Two of these weigh each 6,000 
pounds and the third 3,000."

     Lieutenant Peary then produced a number of photographs. These showed 
the original location of the big meteorite, the successive steps in its 
removal to the seashore, a quarter of a mile distant, and how it was loaded 
on the vessel which brought it to New York. "What do you think of the 
proposition of the United States in purchasing Greenland?" the lieutenant 
was asked as he replaced his photographs.  "There's no earthly use why we 
should want that country." he replied, again stroking his long mustache. 
"Why that country costs Denmark annually a large sum of money.  There are 
only about 10,000 inhabitants in the country, 200 of these being Europeans." 
"Are there any seal in Greenland?"

     "Yes, but not the fur-bearing seal.  As to gold, of course, it is 
possible that some might be discovered there.  The principal minerals of 
Greenland are cryolite, graphite and mica.  Cryolite is used in making 
bicarbonate of soda." He was asked his opinion as to the whereabouts of 
Andree, who went in quest of the north pole in a balloon. "It's about even 
that Andree is still alive," he said. "But the chances of his having reached 
the north pole are not one in a thousand.  He may be somewhere in Siberia 
now; that is what the latest intelligence would point to." Lieutenant Peary 
announced that he would go back north again next year prepared to stay five 
years if necessary.  He said his wife would not accompany him.

Chicago Journal

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