28 THENORTHPOLE 



Our departure from Eagle Island was timed so that 

 Mrs. Peary and I should arrive by train at Sydney, 

 Cape Breton, the same day as the ship. I have a very 

 tender feeling for the picturesque little town of Syd- 

 ney. Eight times have I headed north from there on 

 my arctic quest. My recollections of the town date 

 back to 1886, when I went there with Captain Jackman 

 in the whaler Eagle, and lay at the coal wharves for 

 a day or two filling the ship with coal for my 

 very first northern voyage, the summer cruise to 

 Greenland, during which journey the "arctic fever" 

 got a grip upon me from which I have never 

 recovered. 



Since that time the town has grown from a little 

 settlement of one decent hotel and a few houses, to a 

 prosperous city with seventeen thousand inhabitants, 

 many industries, and one of the largest steel plants 

 in the western hemisphere. My reason for choosing 

 Sydney as a starting point was because of the coal 

 mines there. It is the place nearest to the arctic 

 regions where a ship can fill with coal. 



My feelings, on leaving Sydney this last time, 

 though difficult to describe, were different from those 

 at the start of any previous expedition. I felt no 

 uneasiness once the lines were cast off, for I knew that 

 everything had been done which could be done to 

 insure success, and that every essential item of supplies 

 was on board. On former journeys I had sometimes 

 felt anxiety, but through the whole of this last expedi- 

 tion I allowed nothing to worry me. Perhaps this 

 feeling of surety was because every possible contin- 

 gency had been discounted, perhaps because the set- 



