336 STORY OP HARRY WHITNEY 



he personally had seen that these things had been left in a cache and had told 

 the Eskimos that they had been left there for Cook. 



"I also told the Eskimos that they were to leave the cache undisturbed 

 and that they were not to break up Cook's sledge. Later I heard the report 

 that the instruments were the ones that Cook had used during his sledge 

 journey, but I gave the report no credence, as I could not conceive of a man 

 leaving instruments of that kind out of his own sight or in the hands of 

 a stranger. 



"Still later, after leaving Eskimo land entirely, and during the voyage 

 home, I heard a report that Cook also had left with Whitney a flag he had 

 carried with him on his sledge' journey. No one seemed to know anything 

 definite about this, and I paid no attention to the report for the same reason 

 as before. After getting in contact with the world I learned that Cook was 

 reported to have said that he left records of his sledge journey for Whitney to 

 bring home. I never had heard anything of the kind and discredited this re- 

 port as well. 



"While knowing nothing of the matter, I do not believe Cook left either 

 his records or his instruments or flags with Whitney. I cannot conceive it 

 possible for a man under those circumstances to have left such priceless things 

 out of his sight for an instant. As he went across Melville bay to Danish 

 Greenland with three or four sledges and teams of dogs, his instruments, his 

 records, and his flags scarcely would have added a featherweight to his burden. 



"ROBERT E. PEARY." 



Peary had more to say, too. He pointed out that Dr. Cook alleged he in 

 one sledging season had covered twenty-five degrees, or 1,700 miles, of Arctic 

 ice, when no previous explorer, notwithstanding vastly better equipment, ever 

 had covered more than eleven degrees of that most difficult going on the 



universe. 



"It is well known," said Peary, scoring what his bitterest enemy must 

 regard as a staggering blow to Cook's case, "what my equipment was when I 

 started north from Cape Columbia. The world has read of my equipment and 

 the world knows what my experience was in the Arctic field. Yet I did not 

 make quite fourteen degrees in my last and only successful dash to the pole." 



Peary pointed out with a smile that showed every one of his gleaming 

 teeth and ruffled the bristles of his great sandy mustache that Dr. Cook had 

 taken one sledge on his 1,700 mile journey over Arctic ice. This was the 

 sledge that Cook left behind him at Etah. 



