MACCULLOCII, GEOLOGY OF BAFFIN'S BAY. 325 



about 25 miles inland (lat. 76° 12' N., long-. 53^ W.). This 

 Iron Dr. Wollaston estimated to contain between 3 and 4 per 

 cent, of Nickel, and Mr. Fyfe found in it 2-56 per cent. Hence 

 they regarded it as of meteoric origin. Op. cit.. vol. i., p. 132, 

 p. 140, and vol. ii., pp. 181-6. 



XLI. — Notes on Meteokic Iron used by the Esquimaux 

 of the Arctic Highlands. By Captain (now 

 General Sir) Edward Sabine, R.A., F.K.S., &c. &c. 

 1819. 



1. "Quart. Journ. Lit. Sc., &c.," 1819, vol. vi., p. 369; and 

 " Geolog. Magazine," vol. ix., p. 74, 1872. 



The northern Esquimaux lately visited by Captain Ross [in 

 August 1818] were observed to employ a variety of implements 

 of iron ; and upon inquiry being made concerning its source by 

 Captain Sabine, he ascertained that it was procured from the 

 mountains about 30 miles from the coast. The natives described 

 the existence of two large masses containing it. The one was 

 represented as being nearly pure iron, and they had been unable 

 to do more than detach small fragments of it. The other, they 

 say, was a stone, of which they could break fragments, which 

 contain small globules of iron, and which they hammered out 

 between two stones, and thus formed them into flat pieces about 

 the size of half a sixpence, and which let into a bone handle, 

 side by side, form the edges of their knives. It immediately 

 occurred to Captain Sabine that this might be meteoric iron ; but 

 the subject was not further attended to till specimens of the knives 

 reached Sir Joseph Banks, by whose desire Mr. Brande examined 

 the iron, and he found in it more than three per cent, of nickel. 

 This, with uncommon appearance of the metal, w^hich was perfectly 

 free from rust, and had the peculiar silvery whiteness of meteoric 

 iron, puts the source of the specimens alluded to out of all doubt. 

 The one mass is probably entirely iron, and too hard and intractable 

 for further management ; the other appears to be a meteoric stone 

 containing pieces of iron, which they had succeeded in removing 

 and extending upon a stone anvil." 



2. Extract from " An Account of the Esquimaux who inhabit the 

 " West Coast of Greenland above the Lat. 76°." By Captain 

 Edward Sabine, R.A., F.R.S., F.L.S. " Quart. Journ. of 

 Literature, Science, &c.," vol. vii., 1819, pp. 72-94. See 

 also the " Geological Magazine," vol. ix., 1872, pp. 73-74. 



" Each of the Esquimaux who visited us on the lOth of August 

 [1818], and I believe each of the others whom we after saw, had a 

 rude instrument answering the purpose of a knife. The handle is 

 of bone, from 10 to 12 inches long, shaped like the handle of a 

 clasped knife ; in a groove which is run along the edge are inserted 



