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The National Geographic Magazine 



diate practical ones, and British and for- 

 eign commentators do not obscure or 

 overlook them ; and these results, to- 

 gether with the expedition's non-loss of 

 a man, entire freedom from scurvy or 

 sickness in any form, and return of the 

 ship, have had their very friendly com- 

 ments. 



No better illustration of the practical 

 way in which these business men of the 

 Peary Arctic Club have approached the 

 work and of our own practicality as a 

 nation could be afforded than the quiet 

 way in which the club's expeditions have 

 set forth, and particularly the recent re- 

 turn of the Roosevelt as compared with 

 the return of Nansen's Fram. 



The latter came into her home port 

 with salvos of artillery, a harbor covered 

 with boats, and its shores lined with a 

 cheering multitude, congratulations from 

 King and Parliament ; and Nansen today 

 is Norwegian Ambassador to Great 

 Britain. 



The Roosevelt steamed into New York 

 harbor, lay at anchor for forty-eight 

 hours, and went to her shipyard for re- 

 pairs v,'ithout a ripple. 



Do not for a moment get the erroneous 

 impression that I speak of this in a spirit 

 of criticism or complaint ; on the con- 

 trary, I understand the situation fully 

 and am entirely in accord with it. 



We are too big to need to assert our 

 existence to the other members of the 

 family of nations, and things which to 

 a smaller country might be the event of 

 its life, to us are only one of several items 

 in the day's work. 



THE JOURNEY NORTH 



In July, 1905, Commander Peary left 

 New York in the Roosevelt, a powerful 

 steamer with auxiliary sailing power, the 

 first vessel to be built in America for 

 Arctic work. He sailed north across the 

 Gulf of Saint Lawrence, along the coast 

 of Labrador, through Baffin's Bay to 

 Smith Sound, on the northwest coast of 

 Greenland. To that point it was summer 

 sailing and child's play. Then the real 

 work began. For the next eighteen days 



it was a continuous fight, through vary- 

 ing vicissitudes of open wafer and packed 

 ice, 350 miles, to Point Sheridan, on the 

 north coast of Grant Land, where the 

 winter camp was made. 



Arctic exploration expeditions must 

 be made in two seasons. Through one 

 summer the explorer must drive his ship 

 as far north as possible, and then estab- 

 lish his base near to land before the six 

 months' night sets in, in October. From 

 then until the last few days of February, 

 when the first glimmerings of the Arctic 

 dawn are seen, the explorer must live 

 inert in a darkness that is relieved only 

 once a month by the pale light of the 

 moon. Then, when light comes for an 

 hour or less a day, he must start north 

 by sledge. 



This Peary did. Four parties set 

 north, each with its sledges and dogs 

 and Eskimo drivers and hunters. These 

 Eskimos, with their dogs, the Com- 

 mander said, are the factors that make 

 the search for the Pole feasible. Two 

 days' march brought Peary's party to a 

 lead — a rift in the ice pack where open 

 water prevents further progress. For 

 six days the party camped at this lead, 

 until a thinly forming shell of ice gave 

 them a precarious passage to the northern 

 side. Only fairly started north from 

 here, they were entirely cut off from the 

 three supporting parties by a blizzard 

 which dela3'ed them five days longer. 

 From then on the diminishing amount of 

 provisions and the serious delays de- 

 manded that one mad rush be made to 

 the north. 



The Commander's lecture vyas illus- 

 trated with excellent stereopticon views, 

 which gave the audience a true idea of 

 actual conditions in the far north. Great 

 hummocks of jagged ice, precipitous 

 pressure ridges and obstacles that would 

 seem insurmountable, stood constantly 

 in the way of progress. But they pressed 

 on at a heart-breaking gait until on April 

 21 Commander Peary was forced to give 

 the word to turn back. He had set a 

 new record, but the Pole, on the reaching 

 of which he had so firmly counted, was 



