6c THE STORY OF PEARY'S GREAT EXPLOIT 



Pole at last was reached. For years the Eskimos had been trying 

 to reach that spot, but it was always with them 'tiquelgh,' which, 

 translated, means, 'get so far and no closer/ They exclaimed in a 

 chorus, 'Ting neigh tim ah ketisher/ meaning, 'We have got there 

 at last/ " 



The flags raised at the Pole, as stated by Commander Peary, 

 were the following : The first flag to be thrown to the breeze was a 

 silken American emblem presented to him by his wife fifteen years 

 ago. He had carried this flag on every one of his expeditions to the 

 North, leaving a piece of it at the highest point he attained. The last 

 remnants were raised and left at the Pole. 



He then raised the navy ensign, the flag of the Navy League, 

 then the flag of the Delta Kappa Epsilon Fraternity, and finally a 

 flag of peace. Tent poles and snow lances were used as flagstaffs, 

 and when all had been raised the Commander took a number of 

 photographs of the group. 



After this ceremony Peary inclosed records of his trip and other 

 documents and personal papers in a box, and buried this in the ice. 

 The documents were placed in watertight coverings, and the box 

 itself was watertight, so that it would float if the shifting or melting 

 ice brought it to water. Of the solar eclipse which took place while 

 he was at the Pole and which was visible from that point, he failed 

 to get a good view, on account of clouds, the sun being much 

 obscured. 



This accomplished, the successful explorers set out on their 

 southward route. At the start of the homeward journey Peary told 

 his men that the marches were to be longer and sleep less. No time 

 was to be lost in making needless observations, and the thing to do 

 was to get back to Cape Columbia, away from their perilous position 

 on treacherous ice. Back near the eighty-seventh parallel, he says, 

 was a stretch, fifty miles wide, that made him very uneasy, for a 

 prolonged easterly or westerly gale would make it an open sea. 



Tt was just after leaving the Pole that he made his last sounding 



