300 



GEOGRAPHICAL PROGRESS AND DISCOVERY. 



sledges, and 92 dogs. Five natives also assisted 

 during the first two or three days of the march. 



On April 18, Peary, Baldwin, Entrikin, and 

 Clarke, with 24 dogs "and 20 sledges, arrived at 

 Anniversary Lodge, having advanced in thirty- 

 one days 134 miles, and there cached their re- 

 maining supplies and equipment, leaving Astrup, 

 Lee, and Davidson in charge, Dr. Vincent hav- 

 ing been previously sent back, incapacitated by ill- 

 nelss or injury from further service. Bad weather 

 and a succession of storms culminated on March 

 19, while 23 members of the expedition were at 

 a camp 40 miles from Anniversary Lodge, at an 

 elevation of 5,500 feet. Many of the dogs were 

 frozen solid, and others had to be chopped out 

 of the ice. Messrs. Peary, Baldwin, Entrikin, 

 and Clarke pushed on, and in fourteen days were 

 85 miles farther. 



The maximum day's march was 18 miles, when 

 the plague having carried off many dogs, and 

 Entrikin being unfit for travel, and the party so 

 reduced by the hardships they had undergone 

 that the plans for the summer could not possi- 

 bly be carried out, and only one fourth of the 

 distance to Independence Bay having been ac- 

 complished, while it had been expected they 

 would reach that point ten days earlier, it was 

 decided to return. The dogs continued to die on 

 the homeward march, compelling the abandon- 

 ment of the sledge during last May. On the trip 

 they surveyed and mapped a hitherto unknown 

 coast line to Melville Bay for 100 miles. Messrs. 

 Peary and Lee are the first white men to see, 

 locate, and measure the iron meteorite near Cape 

 York, which they will bring home next year. 

 Lieut. Peary left the ship Tuesday morning, 

 Aug. 28, off 'Petowik Glacier, 35 miles north of 

 Cape York, in an open whaleboat, with Henson 

 and a crew of 5 natives, bound for Falcon Har- 

 bor, 150 miles distant. When last seen the boat 

 was standing on her course under full sail with 

 a fair wind. 



A tidal wave on Oct. 3, 1893, destroyed the 

 launch and droys and swept away more than 

 half the oil supply, of which a portion was sub- 

 sequently recovered. 



The auxiliary expedition, despite the fact that 

 the ice was heavier and more general than for 

 many yea r s, accomplished much important work. 

 Communication with Peary was not opened up 

 until Aug. 1, and Falcon Harbor was not reached 

 until the 20th. Carey Islands, Cape Faraday, 

 and Clarence Head were thoroughly searched for 

 the Swedish explorers Bjorling and Kallstenius. 

 Their death is now regarded as certain. Relics 

 were brought from Carey island, and a skeleton, 

 supposed to be that of a sailor, was properly in- 

 terred. The ice prevented the proposed explora- 

 tions on Ellesmere Land, but the auxiliary party 

 gathered many valuable scientific data, made a 

 careful study of many important glaciers, and 

 obtained much new and valuable material in 

 arctic deep-sea dredging. 



Prof. Thomas Chamberlain, of the University 

 of Chicago, who accompanied the Peary expe- 

 dition, says : 



The glaciers of Greenland chiefly spring from an 

 ice cap which covers the whole interior. From this 

 ice cap tongues creep out in all directions. Instead of 

 several sn'-w fields gathering to form one glacier, one 

 snow field sends out many glaciers. The great ice cap 



of Greenland puts forth some hundreds of glaciers. 

 One of the more obvious characteristics of most of 

 the glaciers I studied is their termination in vertical 

 faces, even when they end on the land. Most known 

 glaciers slope down to a thin edge at their extremi- 

 ties. These commonly, not always, end in vertical 

 cliffs of ice 100 to 150 feet high. The sides U!M. are 

 frequently vertical. By reason of this they reveal 

 many features that are usually concealed. 1 have 

 never seen glaciers that presented such admirable 

 facilities for investigation as those of this northern 

 region. The most striking structural feature revealed 

 by those vertical faces is the pronounced stratification 

 of the basal ice. Not only is the ice definitely bedded, 

 but the rocky and earthy material which the glaciers 

 carry in their bases is arranged in layers. In some 

 cases the layers are twisted and contorted, and in 

 others they are shoved over each other. The de- 

 tailed study of these gives many clews to the mudux 

 operandi of the ice action. The rate of movement of 

 the ice generally is very slow. On the average it is 

 probably quite safe to say that the movement of tin- 

 ice is less than a foot a day, probably less than a foot 

 a week. It is certain that the ice once extended some 

 distance beyond its present border, but I think I have 

 good evidence that it never completely overwhelmed 

 the coast region, at least not in recent times. I am 

 confident that it never extended across Baffin's Bay 

 and Davis Straits to the mainland and formed the 

 center from which the glaciation of our country was 

 derived. I discovered a small driftless area on the 

 borders of Bowdoin Bay, a phenomenon which has a 

 very important bearing upon the former extension, or 

 rather nonextension, of the ice. I know of^no _ other 

 region that offers superior or even equal facilities for 

 glacial study. 



A party under the lead of Dr. F. A. Cook left 

 New York, July 7, by the " Miranda," having in 

 view the exploration of the coast of Ellesmere 

 Land, a search for the lost Swedish explorers, 

 study of the Greenland glaciers, a visit to the 

 Peary camp, and the return to their homes of the 

 Eskimos who were at the World's Fair. Some of 

 the party were going for pleasure, expecting to 

 hunt for* large game in the polar regions. After 

 some minor mishaps, the " Miranda " made a 

 landing on the coast of Greenland at Sukker- 

 toppen, in latitude 59 25'. Leaving this port 

 on the morning of the 9th for Disco, the vessel 

 had proceeded about 7 miles at full speed, when 

 she struck with tremendous force on a hidden 

 reef. Three times the high waves lifted the ship 

 and let her down with a crash that shook her 

 from end to end. When she floated off the ves- 

 sel was soon seen to be settling. The boats were 

 swung off, and everything made ready to aban- 

 don the steamer ; but the water-tight bulkhead 

 protected the other compartments, and Eskimo 

 pilots having at length come off in their kaiaks. 

 the steamer was gotten safely to harbor, where it 

 was considered unsafe to proceed further. A ft IT 

 some trouble a fishing schooner, the " Rigel,'' was 

 found, and the passengers were transferred to it. 

 The "Miranda" then took the "Rigel" in low. 

 and left Sukkertoppen on Aug. 10, intending to 

 proceed directly to St. John's, Newfoundland. All 

 went well for two days, but a heavy sea. the sec- 

 ond night, weakened the top of the ballast tank 

 and it gave way. The crew were taken aboard 

 the "Rigel," and the "Miranda" went down. 

 All the botanical, geological, and ethnological 

 collections, and all the photographs, probably 

 the finest ever taken in Greenland, went down 

 with her. 



After the Danish Government had decided to 



