APPENDIX IV 



THE VISIT TO THE METEORITE 

 W. ELMER EKBLAW 



Arctic midnight was only a week or ten days past 

 when Mac told me one evening to make ready to go to 

 examine Rasmussen's meteorite on the shores of Mel- 

 ville Bay, some two hundred miles from Etah. The 

 order came as a surprise to me, for, though I had wished 

 to see the "ironstone" ever since I had first heard of 

 it from the Eskimos, I had felt that perhaps the prepara- 

 tions for our impending dash for Crocker Land would 

 preclude the possibility of using time and dogs for any 

 subordinate purpose. Hence, I was much pleased that 

 I might go, for, after having seen the great meteorites 

 in the American Museum of Natural History in New 

 York, the great rusty blocks of iron brought home by 

 Peary, I was curious to examine others "on their native 

 heath." 



The Rasmussen meteorite had long been sought by the 

 Eskimos, who knew by tradition that it lay sonaewhere 

 on Ironside Mountain; the exact locality had been for- 

 gotten since the time its metal had ceased to be one of 

 their sources of iron for knife-blades, before the white 

 man came with a more abundant and more convenient 



