The American Museum Journal 
VOL. V. JANUARY, 1905. No. 1 
THE CAPE YORK METEORITES. 
SAJINCE the time of Captain Ross’s voyage to north- 
§} ern Greenland in 1818, the world has known that 
the Eskimo whom he found there were provided 
with knives and other utensils which were armed 
with iron. The source of this iron was a puzzle, 
since the Eskimo did not then possess, nor do they now have, 
the means for reducing any of the metals from their ores. The 
natives merely said that the metal came from the “Iron Moun- 
tain,’ and they would give neither Ross, nor any of the succeed- 
ing explorers who have visited the region, exact information 
regarding its location, until Commander Robert E. Peary 
gained the esteem and confidence of the tribe to such an extent 
that the secret was revealed to him. On May 27, 1894, he 
and Hugh J. Lee, a member of his expedition, under the guidance 
of Tallakoteah, an Eskimo, were the first white men to behold any 
of the ‘‘Saviksue’’ or Great Irons. Two hundred miles of terrible 
sledge travel, amid many and great dangers, had been necessary 
to attain this object.' On this trip was found the medium-sized 
mass known as the Woman, now on the fourth floor of the Mu- 
seum, but the advent of stormy weather and the rapid approach 
of the breaking-up of the ice in the spring prevented visiting the 
largest mass, which was only six miles away on another small 
island. Tallakoteah picked up a boulder lying beside the Woman 
and illustrated the method used by his ancestors for getting 
material for their knives by pounding at an edge of the mass 
until a bit of the iron was loosened enough to be removed. Not 
since about the time of Ross’s visit have the Eskimo resorted to 
' A thrilling account of this journey and a full description of the removal 
of the Saviksue to New York may be found in Commander Peary’s book, 
“ Northward over the Great Ice.” 
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