CHAPTER X 



Peary's Farthest North of 190^-6 



COMMANDER PEARY'S three expeditions of which we have 

 written, those of 1886, 1891-92 and 1893-95, had to do with 

 the exploration of Greenland, not with that search for the 

 North Pole to which so many of his later years were devoted. He 

 went north again in 1896 and 1897, this time for still another pur- 

 pose. In 1894 he had discovered near Cape York a large mass of 

 meteoric iron, from which the Eskimos for many years had chipped 

 off fragments for knives and spear-tips. There were two smaller 

 masses which were easily removed, but to bring the larger one to 

 civilized lands proved a task almost beyond the means that could be 

 employed in that northern region. 



The huge bulk, twelve feet long by eight feet wide, and weigh- 

 ing about one hundred tons, was no light thing to lift out of its 

 ancient resting place in the ground, transport it for some distance 

 to the coast, and place it in the hold of a ship for transportation 

 southward. The first year's effort proved a failure. The huge 

 meteorite was brought down to the natural rock-pier where the ship 

 lay ready to take it on board. But the winter was at hand, the ice- 

 floes came drifting into the bay, and the "Hope" had to cut loose 

 and glide away. 



The next year (1897) the "Hope" returned and made fast 

 opposite the great iron mass, which was finally loaded on the ship 

 by the aid of a bridge of stout timbers leading from the rock to the 

 ship's deck. There were critical moments when it seemed as if it 

 would topple over and sink to the sea bottom. But the arts of man 

 overcame the resistances of nature and the huge bulk was finally 



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