294 THENORTHPOLE 



Of course there were some more or less informal 

 ceremonies connected with our arrival at our difficult 

 destination, but they were not of a very elaborate 

 character. We planted five flags at the top of the world. 

 The first one was a silk American flag which Mrs. Peary 

 gave me fifteen years ago. That flag has done more 

 traveling in high latitudes than any other ever made. 



That depends upon the character of the instruments used, the ability of the 

 observer using them, and the number of observations taken. 



If there were land at the Pole, and powerful instruments of great precision, 

 such as are used in the world's great observatories, were mounted there on suitable 

 foundations and used by practised observers for repeated observations extending 

 over years, then it would be possible to determine the position of the Pole with 

 great precision. 



With ordinary 6eld instruments, transit, theodolite, or sextant, an extended 

 series of observations by an expert observer should permit the determination of 

 the Pole within entirely satisfactory limits, but not with the same precision as by 

 the first method. 



A single observation at sea with sextant and the natural horizon, as usually 

 taken by the master of a ship, is assumed under ordinary satisfactory conditions to 

 give the observer's position within about a mile. 



In regard to the difficulties of taking observations in the arctic regions, I 

 have found a tendency on the part of experts who, however, have not had practical 

 experience in the arctic regions themselves, to overestimate and exaggerate the 

 difficulties and drawbacks of making these observations due to the cold. 



My personal experience has been that, to an experienced observer, dressed 

 in furs and taking observations in calm weather, in temperatures not exceeding 

 say 40° below zero Fahrenheit, the difficulties of the work resulting from cold 

 alone are not serious. The amount and character of errors due to the effect of 

 cold upon the instrument might perhaps be a subject for discussion, and for distinct 

 differences of opinion. 



My personal experience has been that my most serious trouble was with the 

 eyes. 



To eyes which have been subjected to brilliant and unremitting daylight 

 for days and weeks, and to the strain of continually setting a course with the 

 compass, and traveling towards a fixed point in such light, the taking of a series 

 of observations is usually a nightmare; and the strain of focusing, of getting precise 

 contact of the sun's images, and of reading the vernier, all in the blinding light 

 of which only those who have taken observations in bright sunlight on an un- 

 broken snow expanse in the arctic regions can form any conception, usually leaves 

 the eyes bloodshot and smarting for hours afterwards. 



