May 5, 1910] 



NATURE 



2H 



sledge when making a sounding, and had handles for reel- 

 ing in the wire and lead. 



One of these reels and leads were carried by Bartlett 

 with his advance party, and the other reel and two leads 

 by the main party. 



Portions of the wire and the two leads were lost at 

 various times in hauling up, owing, probably, to kinks in 

 the wire. 



When the sounding at 85° 33' was made, 700 fathoms 

 only were left of the sounding wire of the main party, and 

 Bartlett, with the other thousand fathoms, was in advance 

 and inaccessible. 



In hauling up the wire from this sounding it parted 

 again, and some 200 fathoms, together with two pickaxe 

 heads and a steel sledge shoe, which had been used to carry 

 it down, w-ere lost. 



When Marvin turned back the Captain's 1000 fathoms 

 and the remaining 500 fathoms of the other reel were 

 combined. 



When Bartlett made the sounding at 87° 15' I gave him 

 explicit instructions to use the utmost caution in regard to 

 the wire, in order not to lose any more of it, as I wanted 

 it all for a sounding at the Pole should I succeed in getting 

 there. 



.Acting upon these instructions, Bartlett ran out 1260 

 fathoms and then stopped, on account of a small kink in 

 the wire, which he feared would part when the wire was 

 hauled up. 



When I made my sounding about five miles from the 

 Pole the wire parted, as had been feared, and the last lead 

 and nearly all of the wire was lost. 



The above facts are noted to e.xplain the irregularity of 

 these soundings, which did not get bottom. 



The sounding of 310 fathoms at 85° 23' naturally 

 impressed me at once as surprising, and when Marvin re- 

 ported the result to me, immediately after taking the sound- 

 ing, I at once asked him if he was sure that he had the 

 bottom, and he replied that he was, as the fact of this 

 pronounced shoaling from 825 fathoms to 310 impressed 

 him at once, and he made sure that his depth was correct. 



.Again, when the sounding of 700 fathoms and no bottom 

 was made about ten miles farther north, we both spoke 

 of the peculiar fact of this outlying ridge with deeper 

 channel intervening between it and the continental shelf, 

 and Marvin again said that he was sure of his 310 fathoms 

 reading. 



Had it not been for the loss of the last lead and prac- 

 tically all of the wire while making the soundings at the 

 Pole, I should, on the return, have interpolated other 

 soundings. 



The profile indicates that a line of 5-mile interval sound- 

 ings from Cape Columbia to the eighty-sixth parallel might 

 develop a particularly interesting profile of the bottom of 

 the -Arctic Ocean. 



Tidal Records. 



The tidal records consist of practically unbroken series 

 of hourly readings of the height of the tide, taken day and 

 night, at the following places and between the dates 

 specified :— 



Length 

 Station. Period of observation. of 



record. 



Cape Sheridan . November 12, 1908, to June 30, 1909 Days. 



(total loss of record, 31 hours) ... 231 

 Cape Columbia November 16, 1908, to December 14, 



1908 29 



Cape Bryant ... January 16, 1909, tn February 13, 1909 28 

 Fort Conger ... June 10, 1909, to June 25, 1909 (total 



loss of record, 5 hours) ... ... 10 



The observations were taken day and night, and besides 

 the regular hourly readings numerous additional readings 

 were generally taken near the times of the high and the 

 low waters. 



Commander Peary's observations leave little to be desired 

 in regard to tidal observations between Cape Morris Jesup 

 and Cape Columbia ; but there are long stretches of the 

 .Arctic coast where nothing is available. This is especially 

 true of the Russian coast and the western and northern 

 portions of the .Arctic archipelago. 



The results obtained from Commander Pearv's records 



NO. 2 I 14, VOL. 83] 



show that the tides along the northern coasts of Grant 

 Land and Greenland are quite different in many respects 

 from what had been heretofore supposed. For example, 

 his records prove that the tide occurs three hours earlier 

 at Cape Columbia than at Cape Sheridan, and not later, as 

 had been generally assumed. 



•As already intimated, the full significance of these 

 observations in respect to Arctic geography cannot be seen 

 at this time. 



The meteorological records consist of thermograms cover- 

 ing about 180 days, . and barograms covering about 260 

 days. 



National Geographic Society's Investigation. 



.At a meeting of the board of managers of the National 

 Geographic Society, Wednesday morning, October 20, the 

 records and observations and proof of Commander Robert 

 E. Peary that he reached the Pole April 6, 1909, were 

 submitted to the society. 



The records and observations were immediately referred 

 to the committee on research, with the direction that the 

 chairman appoint a subcommittee of experts, of which he 

 shall be a member, to examine said records and report on 

 them to the board. Mr. Henry Gannett, chairman of the 

 committee on research, immediately appointed as the other 

 members of the committee Rear-Admiral Colby M. Chester, 

 United States Navy, and O. H. Tittmann, superintendent 

 of the United States Coast and Geodetic Survey. 



In due course the board of managers of the National 

 Geographic Society, at . a meeting held at Hubbard 

 Memorial Hall, Washington, D.C., November 4, 1909, 

 received the following report : — 



The subcommittee to which was referred the task of 

 examining the records of Commander Peary in evidence of 

 his having reached the North Pole beg to report that they 

 have completed their task. 



Commander Peary has submitted to this subcommittee 

 his original journal and records of observations, together 

 with all his instruments and apparatus and certain of the 

 most important of the scientific results of his expedition. 

 These have been carefully examined by your subcommittee, 

 and they are unanimously of the opinion that Commander 

 Peary reached the North Pole on April 6, 1909. 



They also feel warranted in stating that the organisa- 

 tion, planning, and management of the expedition, its com- 

 plete success, and its scientific results reflect the greatest 

 credit on the ability of Commander Robert E. Peary, and 

 render him worthy of the highest honours that the National 

 Geographic Society can bestow upon him. 



Henry G.wxett. 

 C. M. Chester. 



O. H. TiTTM.AX.N". 



The foregoing report was unanimously approved. 



Immediately after this action the following resolutions 

 were unanimously adopted : — 



" Whereas Commander Robert E. Peary has reached the 

 North Pole, the goal sought for centuries ; and 



"Whereas this is the greatest geographical achievement 

 that this society can have opportunity to honour : There- 

 fore 



" Resolved, That a special medal be awarded to Com- 

 mander Peary." 



Time Records on Dash to Pole. 



Referring to the time occupied by Peary in his last dash 

 to the Pole, Mr. Gilbert H. Grosvenor, director and editor 

 of the National Geographic Society, says : — 



"In view of the recent published statement by a Member 

 of Congress doubting the distances travelled by Peary on 

 his last northern sledge journey, I have gone to some 

 trouble to obtain correct figures from the narrative of 

 Peary's last and previous expeditions. 



" Anyone who cares to take the time and trouble can 

 verify these figures, and will find the following results : — 



" Peary's average distance per march from Cape 

 Columbia to where Bartlett turned back was 12S miles. 

 Had it not been for the north wind two days, setting them 

 back, this average would have been i3§ miles. Between 

 two observations taken by Marvin the average of three 

 marches was i6§ miles. Several of the marches were 

 20 miles. . 



