PROMOTION OF ARCTIC AND ANTARCTIC DISCOVERY. 329 



and was in a helpless conditiou wheu lie was landed. His comj)lete 

 recovery was due in no small degree to tlie unremitting care of Ins wife. 

 We must all feel the greatest admiration for the devotion of this lady, 

 who braved the rigors of the Arctic regions, and was not only ihe life 

 and soul of the winter quarters, but was throughout a most useful mem- 

 ber of the expedition. The house was conceived and erected in a work- 

 manlike manner, and in all Peary's operations there is the evidence of 

 capacity and skill. He studied the questions of clothing, of provisions, 

 and of sledge weights with great care and good working results. He 

 also tried the different kinds of sledges before finally deciding that 

 McOlintock's pattern was the best. His journey occupied eighty- three 

 days, from May 15 to August 6. The start was made with four sledges, 

 four men, and dog teams, the depot sledge with two men returning from 

 Humboldt (ilacier. Peary, with his companion Astrup, i)roceeded with 

 three sledges and the dogs, and was traveling forty-eight days before 

 reaching the northern edge of the great glacier, the actual marching 

 time being forty days, and the distance covered 650 miles, or 16;^ miles 

 a day. They had no depots, and all the food was carried on the sledges, 

 except two musk oxen and a calf shot on the northeast coast. The 

 return journey of 600 miles occupied only twenty-eight days. Peary 

 started with twenty dogs, reached his extreme point with fifteen, and 

 returned with five. A good Eskimo dog will drag 100 pounds at the 

 rate of 10 to 20 miles a day. 



It was found that in a[)proacliing the edge of the glacier toward the 

 north the travelers got involved among numerous crevasses, causing 

 endless trouble to circumvent them, so that it was advisable to keep 

 on the plateau of the glacier. He reached the northeast coast of Green- 

 laud at a place which he named Independence Bay; and from the height 

 called Xavy Cliff he obtained an extensive view of lauds to the north- 

 ward with no ice caps, and therefore probably islands. 



Peary returned home in Sei^tember, 1892, and earned sufficient fands 

 for his second expedition by means of lectures and articles for the 

 press. He had made a very thorough reconnoissance in 1891-92, by 

 which he had tested all his equipments and got well acquainted with 

 the nature of the country. He now resolved to proceed upon his final 

 effort to complete the work he had set himself to achieve. He sailed 

 in Jul3% 1893, with a party numbering fourteen, including Mrs. Peary 

 and her maid, with the intention of erecting the house in Bowdoin Bay, 

 on the shores of Whale Sound. Peary's intention was to commence 

 sledging operations in March, two months earlier than in 1892, and to 

 make for Independence Bay by a route between the previous outward 

 and return routes, so as to avoid the crevasses of the northwest and 

 the fogs of the higher plateau. Eight Mexican donkeys have been 

 taken as an experiment and fitted with snowshoes, as has been done 

 with horses in Alaska. On reaching Independence Bay it is intended 

 to send one party southward to Cape Bismarck and the other north- 



