iv PURSUIT OF KNOWLEDGE 89 



vations should be taken in a series of international 

 circumpolar stations. The United States expedition to 

 Lady Franklin Bay was under the command of Lieu- 

 tenant A. W. Greely, who established his camp in that 

 high latitude, and made many arduous sledge journeys. 

 On account, however, of the failure of the relief ships 

 to reach him after his work had been accomplished, he 

 had to depend entirely upon his own efforts in returning 

 homewards. In 1884 the few men left were only just 

 alive when they heard the whistle of a steamer. Two 

 men struggled out from the camp, and the search party, 

 entering the cove by boat, saw one of them make a 

 signal and approach ; twice he fell. When the rescuers 

 reached Greely 's tent they cried, " Greely, is that you ? " 

 In a faint, broken, hesitating voice came the answer, 

 " Yes yes seven of us left here we are dying like 

 men. Did what I came to do beat the best record." 



The map of Greenland contains two names along its 

 northern shores Peary Land and Mylius Erichsen Land. 

 Rear-Admiral R. E. Peary attained the North Pole as 

 a crowning result of twenty-three years' devotion to 

 Arctic exploration ; but one of his most remarkable 

 and hazardous journeys is commemorated in the name 

 Peary Land. He explored the north-west coast of 

 Greenland, and crossed the interior in its neighbourhood. 

 This success left only the north-east coast unexplored, 

 and in 1906-8 a Danish expedition, under the leadership 

 of Erichsen, proceeded thither for the purpose of scientific 

 exploration. Erichsen and two companions on a sledge 

 journey were confined during the summer of 1908 to a 

 small territory near Denmark Fiord. By the middle of 

 the summer their food was exhausted, and they had no 

 footgear. They attempted to reach a depot ; daily 

 they crawled out of dilapidated sleeping bags and pushed 



