PEARY'S FARTHEST NORTH OF 1905-6 153 



lowered into the ship's hold and wedged so tightly that no pitching 

 of the ship would loosen it. This was a necessary precaution, for 

 the "Hope," on her return, passed through a series of frightful 

 gales, none of which moved the great mass from its resting place. 

 The prize thus wrested from its native lair now lies at the service of 

 science in the vestibule of the Museum of Natural History in New 

 York City. 



Hitherto the discovery of the Pole had in no instance been 

 Peary's main object, but in 1898 he went north with that alone in 

 view, prepared to stay for years if a long sojourn would aid him in 

 his ambitious effort. He did stay till 1902, and it is the events of 

 these years in the Arctic ice that we must here briefly recount. 



On July 7, 1898, he left Sydney, Cape Breton, in the ship 

 "Windward," prepared to storm the Pole or do all of which man, 

 was capable in the attempt. Etah, the first goal of all recent polar 

 voyagers, was duly reached, and the "Windward" was pushed 

 northward from there into Princess Marie Bay, where the ice 

 stopped her course and the first winter came upon the adventurers. 



Winter, however, did not check the indefatigable explorer. On 

 the 2oth of December he left the ship to attempt a sledge journey 

 to Fort Conger, Greely's former winter quarters. The results were 

 serious. Their supplies gave out at Cape Desfosse, and they groped 

 their way over broken and snow-covered ice in the winter midnight 

 across Lady Franklin Bay, stumbling into Conger on January 8, 

 1899. 



The worst result of the journey was the freezing of Peary's 

 feet, they being so badly frosted that Dr. Dedrick, the surgeon of 

 the expedition, had to amputate seven of his toes. This was roughly 

 performed, with unsuitable instruments, at Fort Conger, and the 

 invalid lay there helpless for six weeks. Then he had to be dragged 

 back to the ship, two hundred and fifty miles away, strapped on a 

 sledge, through a temperature ranging from 53 to 65 degrees 

 Fahrenheit. The journey was one of intense suffering to the 



