vi FINDING THE NORTH POLE 



Robert E. Peary's expedition was equipped in the most thor- 

 ough and scientific manner for making the conquest of the North 

 Pole. He was an Arctic traveler of large experience, and had ren- 

 dered valuable aid to science by his explorations of the regions north 

 and east of Greenland. He was one of the first to demonstrate to 

 the scientific world that Greenland is an island, and had sailed on 

 his latest voyage confident that he would return successful. 



When we take into consideration the time, treasure and life 

 that has been spent in this seemingly impossible feat of toil; patient 

 suffering of hunger, cold and self-denial, not to speak of the per- 

 sonal danger to life and limb, it must be considered one of the great- 

 est feats of human endurance of modern times. Almost alone, after 

 leaving the main base of his supplies in Grinnell Land, and with 

 but two Eskimo natives and dogs and provisions sufficient for his 

 journey and return, it was a courageous heart and stout body with 

 endurance beyond the common run of mortals for Dr. Cook to 

 start across the unknown ice of the Arctic Ocean, which is always 

 in motion, never at rest, in all seasons. That ice which had turned 

 back so many brave hearts in utter defeat, that ice which had de- 

 fied some of the best equipped expeditions and the strongest men 

 of soul and body, aye and buried, too, in its frozen bosom, so many 

 of the best blood and brains of the human race, who for more than 

 three hundred years have been fighting to attain that Ultima Thule, 

 the north polar axis of the earth. 



The quest and sacrifice began away back in Sir Hugh Wil- 

 loughby's time, in 1553, when, striving to make a much coveted 

 northeast passage for a short route to the East Indies, he and his 

 whole ship's company perished to a man in the vain endeavor. Then 

 followed a long line of the ancient mariner and fisherman class, their 

 ships fitted out by merchant princes of their country, including some 

 of those best known for their valor, perseverance and loyalty to the 

 problem they had in view: Frobisher, Davis, Barrentes, Behring, 

 Parry, Ross and Franklin; a frequent relay of hardy spirits has 



