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OCR Page 1 of 32Washington,
March 15, 1908.
Dear Sir:
I take the opportunity to bring to your
attention the three Cape York Meteorites, now
on exhibition in the Museum of Natural History.
This group of meteorites can never be
duplicated in any way, by any other Museum,
the three specimens including the entire fall
and one, the "Ahnighito", being the largest
known meteorite in existence.
In size, in locality, in difficulty of
locating and transporting to New York, in hu-
man and historical associations and interest,
they are unapproached by any other known me-
teorites.
They were first heard of in 1818 when
Sir John Ross visited the Aretic shores of
Melville Bay, but repeated endeavors by the
British and Danish governments to discover
them proved unsuccessful.
It was reserved for Commander Peary,
after years of effort, to locate them and de-
termine absolutely that they were of meteoric
origin. Three successive voyages were then
necessary to remove them from their Arctic
bed and bring them to this country.
It was your late President's constant
and often expressed wish that these meteorites
become the property of your Museum. Not more
than a year ago Mr. Jesup said to me, "I wish
I were able to buy your meteorites, because I