INTRODUCTION 



The result of the last expedition of the Peary Arctic 

 Club has been to simplify the attainment of the Pole 

 fifty per cent., to accentuate the fact that man and the 

 Eskimo dog are the only two mechanisms capable 

 of meeting all the varying contingencies of Arctic 

 work, and that the American route to the Pole and 

 the methods and equipment which have been brought 

 to a high state of perfection, during the past fifteen 

 years, still remain the most practicable tneans of 

 attaining that object. 



Had the past winter been a normal season in the 

 Arctic region and not, as it was. a particularly open one 

 throughout the Northern hemisphere, I should have won 

 the prize. And even if I had known before leaving the 

 land what actual conditions were to the northward, as I 

 know now, I could have so modified my route and my dis- 

 position of sledges that I could have reached the Pole in 

 spite of the open season. 



Another expedition following in my steps and pro- 

 fiting by my experience cannot only attain the Pole; but 

 can secure the remaining principal desiderata in the 

 Arctic regions, namely, a line of deep sea soundings 

 through the central Polar Ocean, and the delineation of 

 the unknown gap in the northeast coast line of Greenland 

 from Cape Morris Jesup to Cape Bismarck. And this 

 work can be done in a single season. 



As regards the belief expressed by some that the 

 attainment of the North Pole possesses no value or in- 

 terest, let me say that should an American first of all men 

 place the Stars and Stripes at that coveted spot, there is not 

 an American citizen at home or abroad, and there are 

 millions of us, but what would feel a little better and a 



