THE METEORITE EOR THE MUSEUM.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 5769, 13 January 1897, Page 3

THE METEORITE EOR THE MUSEUM.

We heartily congratulate Captain Hutton ou his Satest acquisition for the Museum. The possession of a meteorite ■which is one of the finest known in the world, will give considerable additional prestige to the best museum south of the Line. So fine a .specimen is well worth) the moa bones for which it has been exchanged, and its arrival in May will be looked forward to with great interest; but, proud as we shall be of our meteorite, it sinks into insignificance when compared with the great meteorite of Meteor Island, which it was the object of the recent Peary expedition to obtain. This enormous block of metal which waa reported by Sir John Ross in 1818, was never actually seen by a white man until Peary and Leo ascertained its exact locality in 1894. They found it on an island near Cape York, on the north-west coast of Greenland. It is an immense mass of metal, yielding nearly 90 per cent pure iron by analysis, and weighing about forty tons, and is an irregular block 10ft by 6ft by 4ft in size. Peary also discovered two fragments, one weighing about three tons and the other half a ton, which he took away in the Kite. But his appliances proved to be insufficient to remove the great meteorite, and ho was obliged to leave it behind. It is, unfortunately, in some danger from the Esquimaux, who have been in the habit of using the workable iron which these meteorites so abundantly supply to make knives and implements of the chase. Peary found the huge block surrounded by acres of broken stones, accumulated by the Esquimaux of West and South Greenland, who are said to havo travelled there during countless years. The failure to secure the great' meteorite must have been an immense disappointment to Peary, who managed to bring it to the ship's side, but could not get it on board, owing to the breaking of the jackscrews. He, however, brought back with him a splendid scientific collection, so that the expedition was by no means a fruitless one. ■ ' ■