This suspicion was considerably strengthened when the General was found dead in his prison, the morning after his arrest.  People then said that both men were concerned in the great plot, and that both had died rather than be forced to confess.

All Mexico is very much puzzled and troubled over this mysterious occurrence.

* * * * *

The meteorite has been safely landed, and is now on the dock at the Brooklyn Navy-Yard, where it is to remain until Lieutenant Peary decides what he will do with it.

In appearance it is a smooth, mud-colored rock, that looks like a great boulder.  The meteorite is ten feet long, eight feet wide, and six feet thick.  It weighs over ninety tons.

It was no easy matter to get this great stone on board the Hope.  It lay a short distance from the shore, and the sailors had to drag it to the water’s edge.

As soon as the Hope arrived in Melville Bay, where the meteorite was found, the whole crew, armed with shovels and picks, went ashore and began digging around it.

The job of digging it out of the frozen ground was enough to have discouraged these men at the outset.  It was half covered with snow, and frozen solidly to the surrounding earth.  The sailors had to dig through seven feet of frozen ground before they finally reached the lower surface of the meteorite, then more digging followed, and at last, after five days of this hard work, it was free and ready to be moved.

By means of some strong derricks which they had brought for the purpose, the monster was finally lifted and dragged to the shore.

Here another kind of derrick, made like those that are used for lifting heavy guns on board ship, was brought into service, and the mass of metal was slowly lifted and lowered into the hold.

The ship had been lightened as much as possible to make room for this enormous weight, but for all that the vessel was sunk much too deep in the water for safety when she finally started on her homeward journey.

Scientists say that the meteorite is a mass of metal, and is practically composed of material similar to the steel armor used for armor-plates.  All are agreed that it is the largest meteorite ever discovered.

Lieutenant Peary also brought back with him a party of Esquimaux, who are to spend the winter building an Arctic exhibit for the Natural History Museum.  The materials they will use have all been brought back by Mr. Peary.  They are to build a little scene which will show the Esquimaux in their national costume, occupied in some of the typical Arctic employments.  The figures that will illustrate these pictures will be modelled after the Esquimaux themselves.

There are six Esquimaux in the party brought back on the Hope—­three men, a woman, a boy, and a girl.  They, men and women alike, wear trousers of polar-bear skins, sealskin coats, moccasins made from tanned sealskins, and fur hoods.