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{
    "localId": "4587210",
    "label": "Meteorite Materials - The Ahnighito Meteorite",
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    "id": "4587210",
    "sourceUrl": "https://catalog.archives.gov/id/4587210",
    "contentType": "document",
    "title": "Meteorite Materials - The Ahnighito Meteorite",
    "citationUrl": "https://catalog.archives.gov/id/4587210",
    "collections": [
        "Rear Admiral Robert E. Peary Family Collection",
        "Manuscripts, Published Writings, and Lectures"
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    "url": "https://catalog.archives.gov/id/4587210",
    "naId": 4587210,
    "coverageEndDate": {
        "logicalDate": "1897-12-31",
        "year": 1897
    },
    "coverageStartDate": {
        "logicalDate": "1897-01-01",
        "year": 1897
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{
    "seq": 39,
    "pageIndex": 0,
    "type": "photo",
    "url": "https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/dc-metro/coll-xp/3432822/4587210/4587210-001-0039.tif",
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    "ocrText": "Quarterly Journal of Literature, Science, etc.,\" vol. vii., I819, pp. 72-94.\nSee also the \" Geological Magazine,\" vol. ix., 1872, pp. 73-74.\nEach of the Esquimaux who visited us on the IOth of August (1818), and I\nbelieve each of the others whom we after saw, had a rude instrument answering\nthe purpose of a knife. The handle is of bone, from IO to I2 inches long,\nshaped like the handle of a clasped knife ; in a groove which is run along the\nedge are inserted several bits of flattened iron, in number from three to seven in\ndifferent knives, and occupying generally half the length. No contrivance was\napplied to fasten any of these pieces to the handle, except the one at the point,\nwhich was generally two-edged and was rudely riveted. In answer to our in-\nquiries from whence they obtained the iron, it was at first understood that they\nhad found it on the shore and it was supposed to be the hooping of casks,\nwhich might have been accidentally drifted on the land. We were surprised,\nhowever, in observing the facility with which they were induced to part with their\nknives; it is true, indeed, that they received far better instruments in exchange,\nbut they did not appear to attach that value which we should have expected to\niron SO accidentally procured. This produced some discussion in the gun-room,\nwhen it appeared that some of the officers who had been present in the cabin\nwhen the Esquimaux were questioned were not satisfied that Zaccheus' Sach-\neuse,\" of Captain Ross's Narrative, 1819) interpretation had been rightly under-\nstood he was accordingly sent for afresh, and told that it was desired to know\nwhat had been said about the iron of the knives (one of which was on the table),\nand he was left to tell his story without interruption or help. He said it was not\nEnglish or Danish, but Esquimaux iron; that it was got from two large stones on\na hill near a part of the coast which we had lately passed, and which was now in\nsight the stones were very hard that small pieces were knocked off from them,\nand beaten flat between other stones. He repeated this account two or three\ntimes, SO that no doubt remained of his meaning. In reply to other questions,\nwe gathered from him that he had never heard of such stones in South Greenland;\nthat the Esquimaux had said they knew of no others but these two that the iron\nbreaks off from the stone just in the state we saw it, and was beaten flat without\nbeing heated. Our subsequent visitors confirmed the above account, and added\none curious circumstance-that the stones are not alike, one being altogether\niron, and SO hard and difficult to break that their supply is obtained entirely from\nthe other, which is composed principally of a hard and dark rock and by break-\ning it they get small pieces of iron out, which they beat as we see them. One of\nthe men, being asked to describe the size of each of the stones, made a motion\nwith his hands conveying the impression of a cube of two feet, and added that it\nwould go through the skylight of the cabin, which was rather larger. The hill\nis in about 76° IO' lat., and 64° 3/4' long.; it is called by the natives 'Sowilic,'\nderived from sowic,' the name for iron amongst these people, as well as amongst\nthe South-Greenlander (sic). Zaccheus told me this word originally signified a\nhard black stone, of which the Esquimaux made knives before the Danes intro-\nduced iron amongst them; and that iron received the same name for being used\nfor the same purpose. I suppose that the Northern Esquimaux have applied it\nin a similar manner to the iron which they have thus accidentally found.\n\"We are informed in the account of Captain Cook's Third Voyage that the\ninhabitants of Norton Sound, which is in the immediate neighborhood of Behr-\ning's Straits, call the iron which they procure from Russians shawic,' which is\nevidently the same word. The peculiar colour of these pieces of iron, their soft-\nness and freedom from rust, strengthened the probability that they were of\nmeteoric origin, which has since been proved by analysis.\""
}