The miner, who was well acquainted with the handling of such masses, constructed a low wooden truck, on to which he managed to overturn the fifteen-ton mass, and then, with no other motive power than an old horse windlassing a rope round a capstan as a winch, which had to be moved and reanchored as the truck with its load was drawn up to it, he and his fifteen-year-old son, working so quietly during the winter that not even the nearest neighbor suspected what they were doing, dragged the mass three-quarters of a mile on to his own land. Apparently this mass of iron was known before the discovery above related, as an Indian relic, revered from time immemorial by the Siwash Indians. When the Portland Land Company, who owned the land on which the meteorite was found, instituted legal proceedings in the matter, claiming the right of possession, the lawyer engaged by Ellis Hughes to plead his cause was of the opinion that the meteorite was not “real estate,” but “discarded personal property,” belonging to whoever might find it. In support of this statement he called a very old Siwash Indian as a witness, who testified that the mass of iron had long been known to members of his tribe, who attributed to it magic virtue. As a youth, he said, he had been conducted to it by one of the medicine-men, and informed that if arrows were dipped in the water which collected in the hollows they would always wing their way to the heart of the game shot at. However, the judge ruled that the meteorite went with the land, and an order was issued giving possession thereof to the Portland Land Company. It was purchased later on by Mrs. William E. Dodge, and presented to the Museum of Natural History in New York City.