| Summary: | Newsletter of the North Dakota School for the Deaf. The North Dakota Banner Vol. XXVII DEVILS LAKE, N. D., FEBRUARY 15, 1918 No. 10 My Prairies. I love my prairies, they are mine From zenith to horizon line. * 'Upping: ii world of skv and sod Like the bended arm and wrist of (Jod. T love the (trasses. The skies Are larirer, and ray restless eyes Fasten on more of earth and air Than sea-shores furnish anywhere. I love the hazel thickets, and the breeze. The never resting prairie winds; the trees That stand like spear points high Against the dark blue sky. Are wonderful to me. I love the gold Of newly shaven stubble, rolled A royal carpet, toward the sun, lit to he The pathway of a deity. I love the life of pasture lands: the songs of birds Are not more thrilling to me than the herd s Mad bellowing—or the shadow stride Of mounted herdsmen at my side. I love my prairies, they are mine From high sun to horizon line The mountain and the cold gray sea Are not for me, are naught to me. —Hamlin Oaki.ani>. Meteorites. Any object about which is hung a veil of mystery, the origin of which we can only guess, possesses a peculiar fascination for us. And let that object have an existence somewhere beyond the con-lines of our little world and the interest grows. Thus the arrival of a meteorite causes no little interest in a district. Where they come from; how many millions of years they have been traveling through space: what causes may have started them on their wanderings, no one can say. Much has been written about these strange visitors from space, but there is yet much to he explained. The meteorites themselves are silent, and give no hint of their history. Pliny and Plutarch, as well as many other old writers, mention stones that were seen to fall front the sky long before their day. One which fell in Phrygia was preserved there until in 204 B. C., it was carried to Rome. Pliny tells us about one that fell in Thrace about 470 B. C., and according to Pliny, who lived live hundred years later, the stoue was still in existence. There are authenatic records of only about six hundred and eighty-five meteorites. In the neighborhood of one hundred and forty of these fell within the confines of the United States. One famous meteorite, of the fall of which we have a detailed account, fell in Germany in 1492. An ancient manuscript says of it: “On the 10th of Nov., 1492, a singular miracle happened: for between eleven and twelve in the forenoon, within the town of Ensisheim, fell a stone weighing two hundred and sixty pounds. It was seen by a child to strike the ground where it made a hole five feet deep. It was taken to the church as being a miraculous object.” Within the last five hundred years, a great many stones, as well as masses of iron, have been seen to fall in different part of the world, and have been carefully preserved. Meteorites numbering many millions, enter the earth’s atmosphere every day, hut most of them are of minute proportions and if they reach the earth at all. are seldom seen. The friction produced by passing so rapidly through the air causes them to burn up, and they are dissipated as an impalpable dust, and their presence is indicated only by a faint trail of light across the sky. These are popularly known as “shooting stars.” It is thought that the large meteorites are intensely cold when they enter our atmosphere, and the sudden friction with the atmosphere, and the air raises the temperature of their surface to the melting point; so it happens that most of the known masses have a crust or coating entirely different from the interior. Some of them, unable to withstand violent change of temperature, burst into fragments before reaching the ground and produce what are known as “showers.” Probably the most interesting of all known meteorites, certainly the biggest and the heaviest, are the three popularly known as the Greenland group. On the north coast of Melville Bay, near Cape York, these visitors from space have lain for thousands of years. For no one knows how long, the Eskimos of that region have obtained the metal for their knives and other utensils front these meteorites that had dropped on their shores. The Eskimos call them the “Great Irons,” and, with the imagination of primitive peoples, they saw. or fancied they saw in these strange masses, a resemblance to some animal or other object with which they were familiar, and so they have given each of them a name. The smallest mass, weighing about eleven hundred pounds, they christened “The Dog”; the next in size, weighing about three tons, they named “The Woman,” as its shape suggested to them the crouching figure of a woman, holding a babe in her arms; the largest of all, weighing more than thirty - six-and a-half tons, the “Tent.” But this one was renamed “Ahnigito,” by the daughter of the explorer, who gave it her own name. In the year 1S95, an Eskimo, Talkako-tcath, guided Commander Robert E. Peary of the United States Navy to the spot, and he was the first white man to look upon these monsters. Such valuable curios could not be allowed to remain where only a favored few could see them, so Peary was ordet - ed to bring them home. To carry out this command was no little undertaking: but with characteristic American determination and perseverance, Peary finally accomplished it. As “The Woman” was about to he hoisted on board, the cake of ice ou which it had been ferried out to the ship, broke to pieces, but the tackle proved to be strong enough to hold it, and it was thus saved from a watery grave. On this same expedition Peary visited tho meteorite, “Ahuighito,” which lay on an island located some miles from the t wo, hut found hu could not move tho great iron mass. It was not until 1907 that it was safely brought, to New York, and given the place of honor in tbo, foyer of the American Museum of Natural History.—Forward
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