INTRODUCTION 



arctic episodes of 1909 have engrossed tlie attention of the 

 United States, where feeling and interest have been 

 aroused to an extent unequaled by any other news of the 

 period. 



That two Americans should have reached the North 

 Pole independently would be most gratifying to the na- 

 tional pride at any time, but that such journeys should 

 be made over separate routes and in successive years 

 borders on the man^elous. Especial interest attaches, 

 therefore, to their methods, routes and experiences. 



Dr. F. A. Cook established in 1907 his headquarters 

 most primitively with the Etah Eskimo some two hun- 

 dred and fifty miles from the Arctic sea. He took the 

 field in native fashion, with Eskimo assistants, and select- 

 ing a novel route traveled through regions well-known to 

 abound in game. Attaining the North Pole with two 

 Eskimos, April 21, 1908, he was subjected in his return 

 to the vicissitudes and extreme dangers of a diifting 

 polar-pack, and spent an awful winter in Jones* Sound 

 region, whence his return in 1909 was hazardous and diffi- 

 cult. 



Commander Peary approached the task by again estab- 

 lishing his ship's quarters in 1908 on the very shores of 

 the Arctic Ocean, across whose drifting ice-pack he suc- 

 cessfully made his journey, reaching the pole April 9, 

 1909. Thus he accomplished by energy and resourceful- 

 ness the great task to which he has applied himself for 

 some twenty-three years. 



Late Commander Lady Franklin Bav Expedition. 



