GEOGRAPHICAL PROGRESS. 



the pole, but was able to advance only to 83 

 ,10' north, when he was effectively stopped by 

 the broken pack and much open water, abso- 

 lutely impassable either for sledges or boats. 

 Ketracing his steps to the shore, he pushed on 

 along the Greenland coast, all the time eastward, 

 about 100 miles beyond Lock wood's farthest, to 

 latitude 83 north, longitude 25 west, or approxi- 

 mately but little more than a degree from Inde- 

 pendence Bay, discovered and named by him, 

 July 4, 1892, the high mountain, then visible to 

 the north, being plainly recognized from his new 

 position to the south. The reconnaissance ended 

 with a definite demonstration of the western and 

 northern coast lines of Greenland, and with one or 

 two small breaks along the eastern coast an exact 

 and accurate chart of the entire archipelago." 



Peary's own estimate of his work is clearly set 

 forth in the letter to the secretary of the club, 

 Herbert L. Bridgman, from which the following 

 extracts are taken: 



"First, the rounding of the northern limit of 

 the Greenland archipelago, the most northerly 

 known land in the world, probably the most 

 northerly land. Second, the highest latitude yet 

 attained in the Western Hemisphere (83 50' 

 north). Third, the determination of the origin 

 of the so-called poleocrystic ice (floe-berg), etc. 

 Considering that I am an old man, have one 

 broken leg and only three toes, and that my 

 starting-point was Etah, I feel that this was 

 doing tolerably well. It is almost a thousand 

 years since ' Erik the Red ' first sighted the south- 

 ern extremity of the archipelago, and from that 

 time Norwegians, Dutch, Danes, Swedes, English- 

 men, Scotchmen, and Americans have crept gradu- 

 ally northward up its shores, until, at last, 

 through the instrumentality and liberality of the 

 club, its northern cape has been lifted out of the 

 arctic mists and obscurity. If I do not capture the 

 pole itself in this spring campaign, I shall try it 

 again next spring." 



A pronounced change in the character of the 

 coast was found beyond Cape Washington, the 

 bold precipitous headlands and deeply cut fiords 

 being succeeded by a low, rolling foreland, sug- 

 gesting possible glaciation at some earlier period, 

 and all along the northern coast much open water 

 was met. Bear, musk-oxen, hare, and lemming 

 were killed in the newly discovered country, af- 

 fording an ample supply of fresh meat. 



Having practically connected his work of eight 

 years before with that of 1900 and completed the 

 determination of the northern boundary of Green- 

 land, Peary, on May 22, turned back, following 

 the line of his outward march, and on June 10 ar- 

 rived at Fort Conger, having been three months in 

 the field without accident, illness, or serious mis- 

 hap of any kind to himself or any of his party. 

 Peary sends to the club a complete and detailed 

 chart of his newly disco vered coast and other work. 



Having eliminated the Greenland archipelago 

 as a desirable route to the pole and no farther 

 advance northward being possible until the open- 

 ing of the season of 1901, Peary decided that his 

 next attempt would be from Cape Hecla, the 

 northern point of Grinnell Land, and from Fort 

 Conger as a base. Accompanied as in the previous 

 year by Henson and 5 Eskimos, he left Conger 

 April 5, 1901, for the north, by way of Cape Hecla. 

 But after ten days' march along the ice, both men 

 and dogs proved to be out of condition and unfit 

 for the more arduous work certainly ahead of 

 them. Peary therefore returned in good order and 

 without loss to Fort Conger. Late in April, with 

 his entire force, he retreated southward. 



The Windward, fast in her winter quarters at 



Payer harbor, near Cape Sabine, with Mrs. Peary 

 and Miss Peary on board, prisoners in the ice for 

 nearly eight months, was reached May 6, and 

 here Peary established his headquarters until the 

 auxiliary ship of 1901 should arrive. 



Open water came early at Cape Sabine, and on 

 July 2 the Windward extricated herself from the 

 ice and, crossing to the east side of Smith Sound, 

 devoted July to a successful hunt for walrus in 

 Inglefield Gulf. One hundred and twenty-five 

 were captured and landed at Cape Sabine, the 

 Windward recrossing the sound to Etah, Peary's 

 headquarters for 1899-1900, where she awaited the 

 Erik, which arrived on Aug. 4. 



Some trouble having arisen with the physician 

 of Peary's expedition, Dr. T. S. Diedrich, he was 

 left behind on the shore of Smith Sound at the 

 Eskimo settlement of Etah, where he insisted 

 upon landing and remaining. 



Lieut. Peary intends to make another effort to 

 reach the pole in the spring of 1902. 



In the region about Baffin Bay it was thought 

 some intelligence might be obtained of the Fram, 

 Capt. Sverdrup's vessel; but it seems to have been 

 last seen by the natives at Etah about Aug. 17, 

 1899, although it was reported at Disco that "in 

 March, 1901, a steamer had been seen far off the 

 shore in Davis straits, heading northward, which 

 might have been the Fram." 



The Russian expedition under Baron Toll was 

 heard from in April, 1901, when it was at the 

 Gulf of Taimyr, a part having explored the Nor- 

 denskjold Islands. 



Another expedition from Russia is that under 

 Vice-Admiral Makaroff. His famous ice-crusher, 

 the Ermak, or Fermak, has been fitted out for the 

 work. " The Ermak is of massive steel and is 

 305 feet long, 71 feet broad, and 42 feet in 

 depth. She has a displacement of 8,000 tons, and 

 her engines are of 10,000 horse-power. Propellers 

 in the bow assist in this. She is remarkably shal- 

 low forward, so that her bow can be pushed up 

 on the ice, and thus her great weight bearing 

 down upon the ice helps to crush it. She has been 

 submitted to some remarkable tests, and has 

 steamed through sheet ice 4 feet thick and crushed 

 her way through single floes 25 feet thick." 



The Danish explorer Lieut. Amdrup visited the 

 eastern coast of Greenland in the summer of 1900 

 in the Antarctic, and mapped a part of that coast 

 previously unknown south of Scoresby Sound. 

 The same summer Capt. Naeroe reached 75 30' 

 N. on the same coast, the farthest point yet 

 reached by ship. And the Swedish zoologist Prof. 

 Kolthoff traversed the coast from Cape Broer 

 Ruys to Pendulum island. He brought away sev- 

 eral young musk-oxen, which are to be acclim- 

 atized, if possible, in northern Sweden. 



The Canadian explorer Capt. Bernier plans to 

 follow in part the example of Nansen, entering 

 the ice-pack and drifting to ward, the pole. Much 

 is expected from the American expedition led by 

 Evelyn B. Baldwin, the cost of which is borne by 

 Mr. William Ziegler, of New York. The 'two ships 

 sailed early in July, the America from Tromso 

 and the Frith j of from Sandjfard, Norway; and 

 after calling at more northern points to take on 

 the dogs and complete the equipment, proceeded 

 to Franz-Josef Land, which seems to offer the 

 most promising route to the pole. Mr. Baldwin 

 was a member of the Peary arctic expedition in 

 1893-'94. He has the most extensive transport 

 train ever carried on such a voyage. For moving 

 the supplies and apparatus 400 Eskimo dogs and 

 15 Siberian ponies will be employed, and 50 tons 

 of specially prepared dog food is included in the 

 equipment. In the exploring party proper there 



