EDITORIAL. 847 
to a successful issue. During his three years and a half of 
Arctic residence —adding the time of the earlier visit to that of 
the later— Mr. Peary has made a study of the Eskimos of North 
Greenland. During this time he has personally come into con- 
tact with almost every man, woman and child on the west coast 
north of the Danish possessions. He has lived among them in 
such a way as to get from them data which no temporary visitor 
could secure, and which no one, not understanding their lan- 
guage and not commanding their confidence, could hope to gain. 
As a result, he is in possession of much fuller knowledge of these 
people than any one else has ever been. The results of his study, 
when published, will be an important contribution to ethnology. 
Indirectly, the expeditions which Mr. Peary has caused to be 
made into northern waters have not been without results. Five 
successive voyages, without accident, have shown that Arctic 
navigation, under proper management, is not so dangerous as 
has been supposed. Through those who have accompanied 
these expeditions much information has been secured touching 
the natural history, the geography and the geology of the regions 
visited. Some of these data have been published, while others 
have not yet appeared, but they must, nevertheless, be taken 
into account in enumerating the results of the several expeditions 
for which Mr. Peary has been responsible. It will be readily 
seen that the returns are, in the aggregate, very considerable, and 
that, although the object which was first in mind when the last 
expedition was planned has not been fully attained, the results 
which have been achieved cannot be looked upon as incommen- 
surate with the outlay. Ik, ID) Ss 
So far as concerns the geographical and geological work of 
the expedition which has just returned, it may be said that the 
coast of Greenland, from about 64° 25’ to 78° 45’, was seen at 
sufficiently close range to allow of a general study of its geo- 
graphical features. This study was interrupted more or less by 
the fog which hung about the coast with exasperating persist- 
ency. Nearly the whole of the coast of Disco was seen under 
advantageous conditions. At Holstensborg, Godhavn, Jakobshavn 
