PEARY'S FINAL DASH 123 



Mention was made of the fate of the Roosevelt and its commander said : 



"What will become of the Roosevelt, now that its original mission has been 

 performed, will be decided by the Peary Arctic Club, to which it belongs. I can 

 only make suggestions. The ship might be used as a government revenue cutter 

 in Behring Sea or as a government ice breaker on the New England coast." 



"Might it not be used as a floating memorial?" asked some one. 



"Italy has thus memoralized the Stella Polar and Norway the Fram," was 

 the non-committal reply. "Nansen first used the Fram, later Sverdrup and 

 Amundsen now thinks of fitting her out for another expedition. Then again 

 the Roosevelt might go in quest of the South Pole. No, I shall never try to 

 find the South Pole, or take part personally in other expeditions although I will 

 gladly help such work in other ways." 



Then the question was asked which one hears from the mouths of pessimists 

 of the "What's the use" variety. 



"What real good will result from finding the pole ?" 



"The greatest benefit to science," replied the commander, "will come from 

 my soundings of the Arctic Ocean, which now define the course of its bottom 

 from Cape Columbia to the pole. They therefore supplement the findings of 

 Nansen and Admiral Cagni on the other side. Then there are two big things 

 effected by the attainment of the pole which do not lie in the scientific field. 

 One is man's final conquest of the earth, for every inch of unattainable land is 

 a reproach to civilization. 



"The other practical result from the discovery of the North Pole will be the 

 opening up of that region to the people of lower latitudes. Within five or at 

 least ten years summer travel to the habitat of the Eskimos will be as common 

 as it now is to the Labrador shore." 



