282 GREENLAND 



tically completing the coast-line to Cape Henry Parish, 

 its furthest east, thus rounding the north of the Green- 

 land archipelago, and even there finding traces of 

 Eskimos and a fauna similar to that of other Arctic lands 

 hundreds of miles further south. And striking north- 

 wards over the sea from Cape Hecla, with seven men and 

 six dog-sledges, into the breaking, drifting pack, he made 

 a dash for the Pole which ended at 84 17'. 



His next northern venture, though not more remark- 

 able, is destined, perhaps, to be remembered longer. 

 On it he sighted the new land away out in the sea 

 north-west of Grinnell Land, nearer to the Pole than 

 any other land discovered up to then, and where it was 

 expected to be. And out over the ice he went to 

 eclipse his 1902 record by nearly two hundred miles, 

 in the best planned of all his journeys. 



In July, 1905, he had left New York in the Roosevelt, 

 a steamship of over six hundred tons and more than 

 a thousand horse-power, rigged complete as a three- 

 masted coasting schooner, able to hold her own almost 

 anywhere in the event of her engines becoming useless. 

 One hundred and eighty- two feet in length, thirty-five 

 and a half in beam, and sixteen and a quarter in depth ; 

 sharp in the bow and rounded amidships ; treble in 

 framing and double in planking, with sides thirty 

 inches thick, twelve feet of deadwood in her bow, and 

 six feet of false keels and kelsons, she was specially 

 built for the expedition as the strongest and most 

 powerful vessel ever sent on Arctic service, and was 

 launched on the 23rd of May, 1905, Mrs. Peary 

 naming her by smashing a block of ice against her 

 ironclad stem. 



