THE CONQUEST OF THE ZONES 



event not having either a directly personal or an inter- 

 national political significance. 



The two men whose claims to have discovered the 

 pole were thus announced in such spectacular fashion, 

 were Dr. Frederick A. Cook, of Brooklyn, and Lieu- 

 tenant Commander Robert E. Peary, of the United 

 States Navy. Dr. Cook claimed to have reached the 

 pole, accompanied only by two Eskimo companions, 

 on the twenty-first day of April, 1908. Commander 

 Peary reported that he had reached the pole, accom- 

 panied by Mr. Matthew H. Henson and four Eskimos, 

 on the seventh day of April, 1909. 



The controversy that ensued regarding the authen- 

 ticity of these alleged discoveries is not likely to be for- 

 gotten by any reader of our generation. Its merits and 

 demerits have no particular concern for the purely sci- 

 entific inquirer. At best, as Professor Pickering of 

 Harvard is reported to have said, "the quest of the 

 pole is a good sporting event'' rather than an enter- 

 prise of great scientific significance. It suffices for our 

 present purpose, therefore, to know that Dr. Cook's 

 records, as adjudged by the tribunal of the University 

 of Copenhagen, to which they were sent, were pro- 

 nounced inadequate to demonstrate the validity of his 

 claim; whereas Peary and Henson were adjudged by 

 the American Geographical Society, after inspection of 

 the records, to have accomplished what was claimed 

 for them. What has greater interest from the present 

 standpoint is the question, which the controversy 

 brought actively to the minds of the unscientific public, 

 as to how tests are made which determine, in the mind 

 VOL. VII.— 4 [49] 



