340 STORY OF HARRY WHITNEY 



time to go back to Etah and get the articles he must have known were valu- 

 able to Dr. Cook. 



"14. If Dr. Cook did leave such priceless articles at the Eskimo village, 

 Mr. Whitney would have been anxious to have rushed them to the United 

 States." 



Dr. Cook, while this broadside was being issued, was delivering the first 

 of his lectures. After it he replied to some of the Peary charges, saying: 



"The only sledge Commander Peary saw was half a one, which I had given 

 to Mr. Whitney as a souvenir. The remainder of it had been used to make 

 bows and arrows. 



"As to my reasons for leaving my instruments with Mr. Whitney, he had 

 told me that the Eric was coming to Etah and would take him over to the 

 American side to hunt big game and would come back later to Annotook. The 

 distance from Annotook to Upernavik by the route which I was compelled to 

 follow was nearly 700 miles. In that journey I had to travel over high land 

 in two places, with glaciers and difficult places. The ice was extremely rough 

 and there was a good deal of water to be expected that would have subjected 

 the instruments to a risk which was entirely unnecessary, when Mr. Whitney 

 awaited a ship to go to Etah for him upon which he expected to return direct 

 to America. 



"By going to Upernavik I hoped to get back by the end of July or the 

 middle of August, while Mr. Whitney did not expect to get back before 

 October. 



"As to the charge that I had not found traces of Commander Peary's 

 records at Cape Thomas Hubbard : The point which Commander Peary would 

 call Cape Thomas Hubbard is a round promontory, and it would be difficult tcJ 

 find any distinct point which could be positively recognized as Cape Thomas 

 Hubbard. From Commander Peary's map I am absolutely unable to locate 

 Cape Thomas Hubbard. We did not search for any cairn where records might 

 be deposited. In fact, I did not know that Commander Peary had left any 

 record there. 



