6 THE FRIENDLY ARCTIC 



ships of living on meat exclusively, using nothing but blubber for 

 fuel, and remaining separated from other human beings than his 

 own traveling companions for a period of years. 



To demonstrate the feasibility of this and thereby to bring in 

 the fourth stage of polar exploration, was the main task of our 

 expedition. From my point of view, at least, any discoveries which 

 might be made through the application of this method were second- 

 ary to the establishment of the method itself. For, with the method 

 once established, anyone could go out and make the discoveries. 

 When the world was once known to be round, there was no difficulty 

 in finding many navigators to sail around it. When the polar re- 

 gions are once understood to be friendly and fruitful, men will 

 quickly and easily penetrate their deepest recesses. 



I am one of those who, knowing both Peary and his methods, never had any 

 doubt that he reached the North Pole on April 6, 1909. I have, however, 

 been sometimes impatient of discussion as to whether he reached it or not. 

 The all-important consideration is that he developed a method by which 

 anyone could reach the Pole or any other point no farther removed from 

 the nearest land than five or six hundred miles, which he thought (and I 

 agree) was about the limit as to distance of the dog-sledge system of trans- 

 portation. 



If you once concede that the Wright brothers invented the aeroplane and 

 inaugurated the era of air navigation which is now revolutionizing our 

 civilization, both in peace and in war, then it becomes of little interest 

 whether Orville Wright can fly as high or as far or steer an aeroplane as 

 successfully as some one else. Those are accomplishments by no means 

 small, but not in a class with the pioneer work that made all the rest 

 possible. When Peary was able to reach the Pole he laid down a system 

 by which anyone of good health, sound judgment and a reasonable appren- 

 ticeship in polar work can reach it, starting from the same base on the north 

 coast of Grant Land. With that point understood, any attempted dis- 

 paragement of Peary by suggesting that he was himself too old to get to 

 the Pole (a foolish suggestion, anyway) would be like trying to cast slurs 

 on Watt or Stephenson by pointing out that neither of them drove a loco- 

 motive at a hundred miles per hour. 



