Do you know that nickel-steel and meteorites have practically the same composition? Indeed, the process for making nickel-steel was suggested by a meteor found in Greenland. This meteor was an immense mass that had fallen from the skies ages ago and was venerated by the Greenlanders as a god. The natives were wont to hammer splinters from it and make them into spear heads and hammer heads, accompanying their work by prayers to the god. Explorers found that such spear heads were harder and finer than any others. An Englishman named Riley heard of these discoveries, and they gave him the idea that ended in the new metal. CHAPTER XVIII SAULT STE. MARIE AND THE CLAY BELT I am at the “Soo,” where Lake Superior, the world’s largest body of fresh water, has been harnessed and is being made to work with a force of sixty thousand horses all pulling at once. The St. Mary’s River, through which Lake Superior empties into Lake Huron, has a fall of about twenty-two feet in one mile, and power plants have been installed which are generating electricity for industries on both the American and Canadian sides of the river. A large number of the industrial plants here belong to Americans. The main buildings of these works look like mediæval castles rather than modern factories. They are equal in beauty to any of the ruins of the Rhine or the Danube. Indeed, they remind me of the mighty forts of Delhi, the capital of India. They are made of a rich red and white sandstone, with crenellated walls, and, notwithstanding their beauty, are said to have been built at a remarkably low cost. The blocks of sandstone were taken out of the canal dug for the power plant. [Illustration: The “Soo” Canal not only has the heaviest freight traffic of any artificial waterway in the world, but is also on the route of the passenger steamers that carry thousands of tourists through the Great Lakes.] [Illustration: The longest bascule bridge in the world is operated by the Canadian Pacific Railway at Sault Ste. Marie. Each section is 169 feet long, and is raised by electric power to permit vessels to pass through the canal.] [Illustration: The moose in the thick forests of Canada feed off the trees and smaller shrubs. The moose have such short necks and long front legs that they cannot browse on grass without getting down on their knees.] [Illustration: Ontario has so many lakes that canoes can be paddled for hundreds of miles with practically no portages. Since the days of the French explorers, these lakes have formed part of the water route from the East to Hudson Bay.]