[meteorite-list] NP Article, 08-1896 Race for the Cape York Meteorite

From: MARK BOSTICK <thebigcollector_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Thu Apr 22 10:18:31 2004
Message-ID: <OE24SERG3pibwgnOsjd0000303d_at_hotmail.com>

Paper: The Fort Wayne News
City: Fort Wayne, In
Date: Saturday, August 01, 1896

RACE TO THE NORTH
PROF. DYCHE AND LIEUT. PEARY IN A UNIQUE CONTEST.
METEORITE THE PRIZE.
Both of the Explorers Want the Honor of Bringing It Here. Weighs Forty Tons
and is Worth $50,000

     If two noted Arctic explorers should happen to meet at the same place
in the frozen North there is apt to be a big scrap and if it oncce begins
there will be no dangers of police interference. There two explorers are
rivals and enemies, and moreover they are both now on their way to Melville
Bay for the express purpose of bringing back a gigantic meteorite which lies
half buried in the ground on the shore of the bay. It has been there for
ages, and the native Esquimaux call it the "great iron stone." Both of
these explorers claim the meteorite as his particular property, but the one
who gets there first will gain the prize.
     Lieutenant R. E. Peary is one of the rival explorers and Professor
Lewls Lindsay Dyche, of Kansas, is the other. Lieutenant Peary is more
widely known than Professor Dyche, but in the scientific world the latter is
held in the highest esteem. He has made several trips to the Arctic region
in search of the Pole, and on one occasion journeyed north with Lieutenant
Peary. Something happened on that occasion which caused an estrangement,
andnow they are anything but friends. When Lieutenant Peary returned a year
ago from his eventful trip to the North Professor Dyche wrote a long article
in which he showed that had it not been for a series of blunders made by
Peary the North Pole would have been discovered. This of course, did not
lessen the breach between the two.

START OF THE RIVALS

     When it was annouced a short time ago that Lieutenant Peary was going
to start on a journey to Melville Bay to bring back the great meteorite,
Professor Dyche said nothing, but immediately packed up and left his home at
Lawrence, Kan. A week later the news was given out that he was going to
bring back the meteorite. Dyche left about the 1st of July. whereas Peary
did not leave untill July 16. On that date he sailed in the steamer Hope
from Sydney, C. B., accompanied by a number of scientists. Henson, the
famous black servat of Lieutenant Peary, is one of the party; also Hugh Lee,
who accompanied Peary in all of his trips to the north. The scientists are:
Professors Alf Burton and George H. Barton, of the Massachusette Institute
of Technology; Russell W. Porter, a student in the architectural department
of the Institute of Technology, goes as artists and photographer, and John
C. Phillips, a student of Harvard, as assistant geologistl Geologist G. H.
Putnam, assistant in the United States Coast and Geodstic Survey, has been
detailed to take penduium and magnetic observations. Three scientific
parties will be landed at Labrador, South Greenland and Melville Bay,
respectively.

DYCHE'S MYSTERIOUS TRIP

      There is considerable mystery about Professor Dyche's trip. None of
the details of his plans has been given, but he is known to be a man full of
resource who can make plans in one minute and carry them out in the next.
There is nothing very terrible about a trip to Melville Bay, as it does not
require the long preparations which a more protracted journey to the North
does. Melville Bay has been known to navigators for more than 300 years,
and it used to be a common stamping ground for the old whalers.
      The last heard of Dyche was at Boattle where it was said he was to
said for the North. He was to go through Behring Strait and the Northwest
passage to Greenland. This is a much longer route than that taken by Peary,
but as the Kansas had a start of nearly two weeks, this should even things
up.
     A year ago Professor Dyche said that he was going to try and reach the
North Pole this summer, and it may be that after disposing of the meteorite
he will push on to the North. He is not a rich man, and could not afford to
defray the espense of such a journey, but it is well known that a number of
wealthy men have stood ready for years to supply the money he would require
for a trip.

THE PRIZE METEORITE

     Some time ago when talking about the meteorite, Professor Dyche said;
"This meteorite was first seen by Franklin, to whom the natives showed it,
The Esquimaux have known it for ages. They call it the "great iron stone."
It weighs forty tons and is composed of solid iron mixed with a little
nickel. It probably fell out of the heavens centuries ago and has lain
among the rocks on that inhospitable coast seen by only a few men.
     "When the Kite, on which I went after Peary, was returning, the
Esquimaux told us repeatedly of the 'great iron stone,' and prevailed upon
us to stop and see it. Peary and I saw it at the same time, but Peary
claimed it for himself by 'right of discovery.'
     "I do not know of any law by which he can claim it over me or any other
man who will take the trouble to go after it. I recieved a letter from
Lieutenant Peary a day or two ago in which he warns me that the meteorite is
his, and that he is going to go after it in a ship in the spring. I
understand a syndicate in Chicago is also thinking of outfitting a ship to
go after it. It I should take a notion that I wanted it, and my ship was
the first to reach there, I don't think anyone would prevent my taking it.
      "It is a peculiar grayish bit of metal lying half out of the ground.
It is very hard. We found it impossible to break a piece from it with cold
chisels and sledges. We managed to bore a hole in it for a short distance,
after wearing out several cold bits. Of course it is chiefly valuable for
exhibition purposes for while the iron is remarkable pure, iron is too cheap
to go to Greenland after it. We consider it worth $50,000. If I get it it
will help pay the expenses of the expedition."

PROF. DYCHES CAREER

     Professor Dyche is a remarkable man. When he was thirteen years old he
didn't know the alphabet; at seventeen he could not read; at thirty-eight he
probably knows more about the mammals of North America than any living man,
having observed, shot ad stuffed every one of them except the musk ox and
the white sheep, which he will go after into the country north of Alaska
when he gets the meteorite.
      Dyche was born in West Virginia and missed being a native Kasasn bu
only a few days, because five days after his birth the family moved to that
State. Dyche worked his way through the Normal School and then through the
university. He has the finest collection of stuffed wild animals in the
country. This collection excited the wonder of America at the World's Fair,
and made Dyche a friend of all the great scientists of the country.
     Dyche is short and slight. He has a large head coverd with an immense
mop of thick; strong, crisp hair, and a small nervous face. He is powerful
and wiry and lives on beef and water. He has never used tobacco in any
form. Hehas energy and enthusism enough for ten men. He has camped and
rouged it over the West, on mountain and plain. He has traveled over the
deserts of Old Mexico, New Mexcio and Arizona. He has hunted the whale, the
walrus and the polar bear. He has shot moose and elk and gizzly bears. He
has studied the beaver and the fox.
Received on Wed 26 Feb 2003 02:57:59 PM PST