The American Museum Journal 



Vol. XIII 



FEBRUARY, 1913 



No. 2 



ARCTIC EXPLORATION AND THE NEW 

 STEFANSSON EXPEDITION 



By Robert E. Peary 



IT becomes more and more an age of doing great things, of directing 

 private, institutional and national wealth into channels for great re- 

 sults, and I am glad because of my keen interest in polar exploration, that 

 some of the great things to be done are still to be found in the fastnesses of 

 the Far North notwithstanding four centuries of interest and pioneer work. 

 Exploration has shifted decade by decade from one continent to another 

 and from the Arctic to the Antarctic. The search for the North Pole was 

 carried on many years before that for the South Pole began. Now both 

 Poles have been attained, together with a large body of scientific fact, 

 geographical and otherwise, brought back by the various exploring parties. 

 The globe about the two Poles has held its mystery guarded most sternly 

 of all the regions of the earth, especially about the North Pole where there 

 is no land and the explorer can proceed in winter and earliest spring only, 

 making hazardous journeys on shifting ice over unfathomed ocean depths. 

 ^Yith all that has been accomplished, many hundred thousands of square 

 miles still remain of the three million square miles of uncharted territory 

 that existed prior to the expedition that resulted in the discovery of the Pole; 

 To complete this exploration, to replace with knowledge the tradition and 



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