ON METEORITES, OR CELESTIAL STONES 97
by
Baron Ν. Α. Ε. Nordenskiold in 1870, cast some doubt upon the true
meteoric character of the iron of which the Cape York knives had been
made, and rather discouraged further searches. It was not until 1894
that these extraordinary masses of meteoric iron were at last seen and
located by a European, one of the hunters of the Tellikontinah tribe of
Smith Sound Eskimos serving as Lieutenant Peary's guide. The siderites
were three in number, the two smaller having been named by the Eskimo
"The Dog" and "The Woman," respectively, while the largest was known as
"The Tent." It now bears the name of Ahnighito, that of the daughter of
the explorer.
The
two smaller ones reposed loosely upon gneissic rocks, but Ahnighito,
found on a small island some six miles away, on a terrace 80 feet above
tide-water and about 100 feet from the shore, lay almost buried in
rocks and sand.
Eskimo
legend had woven its web about these enigmatic meteorites and the
natives saw in them an Innuit woman, who with her dog and tent had been
hurled from the sky in a bygone age by Tornarsuk, the Evil One.
Originally the mass called "The Woman" was said to have closely
resembled the figure of a woman, seated and engaged in sewing, but by
the gradual chipping away of fragments of the iron this form had almost
disappeared. Peary was told that not long before, the "head" had fallen
off and that a party of Eskimo had tried to carry it away, lashed to a
sledge; however, as they were passing over the ice, it suddenly broke
up, so that sledge, iron and dogs sank in the water and the Eskimo
themselves barely escaped with their lives.
The
dimensions of Ahnighito, the largest siderite ever discovered, are
given as follows : length, 10 feet 11 inches ; height 6 feet 9 inches ;
thickness, 5 feet 2 inches. It weighs something over 36-1/2 tons. The weight of "The Woman" is 3 tons, and that of "The Dog" 1100 pounds. The 7
