COOK'S EXPEDITION (1907) 323 



as Humboldt Glacier, and when Peary asked for a 

 volunteer to accompany him to the farthest north, Dr. 

 Cook was the first to offer his services. Peary decided 

 to take Astrup, probably because he wished Dr. Cook 

 to take charge of the base camp where Mrs. Peary and 

 the remainder of the expedition had to wait anxiously 

 till his return. Peary states that "to Dr. Cook's care 

 may be attributed the almost complete exemption of the 

 party from even the mildest indisposition, and personally 

 I owe much to his professional skill, and unruffled patience 

 and coolness in an emergency. In addition to his work 

 in his special ethnological field, in which he has obtained 

 a large mass of most valuable material concerning a 

 practically unstudied tribe, he was always helpful and 

 an indefatigable worker." 



After his return from the Arctic, Dr. Cook had a great 

 ambition to try the Antarctic, but did not obtain an 

 opportunity till 1897, and he then had to go on very 

 short notice. The Belgian Expedition had considerable 

 trouble and some disappointment in connection with the 

 surgeons appointed. The first candidate was put aside, 

 after acceptance, for personal reasons, and the second 

 declined to go at the last moment for family reasons. 

 Without a knowledge of this difficulty, Dr. Cook cabled 

 to Belgium from America, volunteering his services, though 

 at the time he had not previously written a line, nor was 

 he acquainted with a single individual of the expedition 

 or its representatives. In reply, he received the instruction, 

 "Meet us at Rio, end of September. " He had only a 

 few days to prepare himself and his outfit for a journey 

 which might take one year or several. French was the 

 language spoken on the ship, but Dr. Cook could not 

 speak a word of it. The Commandant, however, could 

 speak English, and all the scientific staff could speak 

 German, with which Dr. Cook was familiar. This ex- 



