COOK'S STORY OF HIS DISCOVERY OF NORTH POLE 33 



Cook also wrote to his- wife under date of December 6, 1907, 

 that part of the letter of public interest being as follows: 



"I have this opportunity to send a letter to Upernavik by Ramus- 

 sen during this month, and I must hasten to report our progress to 

 the present. I have 100 dogs, and as many more as I desire, with 

 fifteen of the best men of the tribe assembled here for the attack over 

 the new route across Ellesmere Land, out by way of Nansen Sound 

 and back by Kennedy Channel [the channel between Greenland and 

 Ellesmere Land], thus using to good advantage the drift and the 

 musk oxen, so abundant in Ellesmere Land. 



"All of my equipment is ready and we hope to start for the goal 

 late in January. With men and dogs well fed and under normal con- 

 ditions, like my predecessors, I feel confident, as our equipment 

 means perfection. When we return we will push southward at once 

 to Cape York and Upernavik." 



With these introductory pages we leave the stage to Cook him- 

 self, letting him give his narative of the journey. It is a plain, terse 

 story, going little into details, but bearing the aspect of truth upon 

 it. We fill it out here with illustrative comments and additions : 



"After a prolonged fight with famine and frost, we have at last 

 succeeded in reaching the North Pole. A new highway with an 

 interesting strip of land has been found and big game haunts which 

 will delight sportsmen and extend the Eskimo horizon. Land has 

 been discovered on which rest the earth's northernmost rocks. A 

 triangle of 30,000 square miles has been cut out of the terrestrial 

 unknown. 



"The expedition was the outcome of a summer cruise in the 

 Arctic seas on the schooner 'Bradley/ which arrived at the limits of 

 navigation in Smith Sound late in August, 1907. The expedition 

 cost $50,000, of which my friend John R. Bradley gave about 

 $30,000, the rest being my own money. 



"Here conditions were found to launch a venture to the Pole. 

 J. R. Bradley liberally supplied from his vessel suitable provisions 

 3 



