:32G SABINE ON METEORIC IRON. 



several bits of flattened iron, in number from three to seven in 

 different knives, and occupying generally half the length. No 

 contrivance was applied to fasten any of these pieces to the 

 handle, except the one at the point, which was generally two- 

 edged and was rudely riveted. In answer to our inquiries from 

 whence they obtained the iron, it was at first understood that 

 they had found it on the'^shore ; and it was supposed to be the hoop- 

 ing of casks, which might have been accidentally drifted on the land. 

 We were surprised, however, in observing the facility with which 

 they were induced to part with their knives ; it is true, indeed, 

 that they received far better instruments in exchange, but they 

 did not appear to attach that value which we should have expected 

 to iron so accidentallylprocured. This produced some discussion in 

 the gun-room, when it appeared that some of the officers who 

 had been present in the cabin when the Esquimaux were questioned 

 were not satisfied that Zaccheus' [" Sacheuse " of Captain Ross's 

 Narrative, 1819] interpretation had been rightly understood; he 

 was accordingly sent for afresh, and told that it was desired to 

 know what had been said about the iron of the knives (one of 

 which was on the table), and he was left to tell his story without 

 interruption or help. He said it was not English or Danish, but 

 Esquimaux iron ; that it was got from two large stones on a hill 

 near a part of the coast which we had lately passed, and which 

 was now in sight ; the stones were very hard ; that small pieces 

 were knocked off from them, and beaten flat between other stones. 

 He repeated this account two or three times, so that no doubt 

 remained of his meaning. In reply to other questions, we gathered 

 from him that he had never heard of such stones in South Green- 

 land ; that the Esquimaux had said they knew of no others but 

 these two ; that the iron breaks off" from the stone just in the 

 state we saw it, and was beaten flat without being heated. Our 

 subsequent visitors confirmed the above account, and added one 

 curious circumstance — that the stones are not alike, one being 

 altogether iron, and so hard and difficult to break that their 

 supply is obtained entirely from the other, which is composed 

 principally of a hard and dark rock ; and by breaking it they 

 get small pieces of iron out, which they beat as we see them. 

 One of the men, being asked to describe the size of each of the 

 stones, made a motion with his hands conveying the impression of 

 a cube of two feet, and added that it would go through the skylight 

 of the cabin, which was rather larger. The hill is in about 76° 

 10' lat., and 64° J' long. ; it ^is called by the natives 'Sowilic,' 

 derived from * sowic,' the name for iron amongst these people, as 

 well as amongst the South-Greenlander. Zaccheus told me this 

 word originally signified a hard black stone, of which the Esqui- 

 maux made knives before the Danes introduced iron amongst them ; 

 and that iron received the same name for being used for the same 

 purpose. I suppose that the Northern Esquimaux have applied it 

 in a similar manner to the iron which they have thus accidentally 

 found. 



" We are informed in the account of Captain Cook's Third 



