Nearest the Pole 



449 



still 200 miles away — a distance he could 

 have covered but for the sad delays 

 caused by an open season and storms. 



"At noon of April 21st we had reached 

 a point which my observations showed 

 to be in 87 degrees and 6 minutes north 

 latitude, the nearest approach yet made 

 to the Pole. It is perhaps an interesting 

 illustration of the incongruity of human 

 nature that at this time, when it might be 

 thought that my feelings should be those 

 of exultation only, they were as a matter 

 of fact just the reverse. While I en- 

 deavored to be as thankful as possible for 

 what I had accomplished, still the mere 

 fact of breaking the record fell so far 

 short of the splendid jewel to secure 

 which I was straining my "life out, that 

 my feelings were of the intensest disap- 

 pointment ; and this, combined perhaps 

 with the physical exhaustion resulting 

 from our heart-breaking pace on half 

 rations, gave me the deepest fit of the 

 blues." 



Turning south from his most northern 

 camp, he traveled but a few days when, 

 near the open water which had first in- 

 tercepted him, he came across another 

 lead from one-half to two miles wide. 

 After camping two days and consuming 

 almost all the few provisions left, pieced 

 out by meat of weakest dogs, slaughtered 

 because of dite necessity, a thin strip of 

 ice was discovered across the lead. Over 

 this, in skirmish line, each man fifty feet 

 from his neighbor, they dashed, with the 

 thin ice undulating under their feet and 

 the danger of any moment sinking into 

 the black waters of the Arctic sea con- 

 stantly before them. No sooner had 

 they lander on the firm ice of the south- 

 ern side than the newly formed ice on 

 the lead parted. 



Emaciated men and starving dogs — 

 only a few of the latter left — at last 

 struck the coast of Greenland, with 

 which Peary was familiar through pre- 

 vious trips. Here several Arctic hare 

 which the Eskimos killed revived them 

 slightly. Started on their first day's trip 

 toward the west, they intercepted fresh 

 tracks — three dogs and four men abreast. 



staggering as they went. Two runners 

 sent east along this track returned in a 

 day with Clark and three Eskimos, found 

 as they had sunk down in exhaustion 

 and despair to die a lingering and awful 

 death. 



For two days, with only short inter- 

 vals of sleep, the party ate ofif the flesh 

 of the muskox, seven of which Peary 

 killed soon after reaching land. Then 

 westward they went, until about June i 

 the ship was reached. 



FARTHEST WEST 



Hardly recovered from the dash to the 

 Pole, Peary started west along the north 

 coast of Grant Land with a view to es- 

 tablishing some unknown coast lines. 

 This journey took them west to the most 

 northerly point of Grant Land, where a 

 cairn was built and Peary's record and a 

 strip of the American flag was deposited. 

 This cairn is one of three such reposi- 

 tories which form a triangle of points 

 established by Peary. One is on the 

 most northerly point of Grant Land, and 

 thus of the North American Archipel- 

 ago; another is on the most northerly 

 point of Greenland, and the third on the 

 most northerly point in the world ever 

 visited by man. 



These three points, together with the 

 explorations made by Nansen and Nor- 

 denskjold, make a fair investigation of 

 the territory on the American and Euro- 

 pean sides of the • Pole. The district 

 lying north of eastern Siberia is the great 

 unknown. What Peary terms the North 

 American Archipelago is well explored 

 as to coast lines, and but one strip re- 

 mains unmapped on the northeast coast 

 of Greenland. The Commander is ab- 

 solutely confident that the Pole can be 

 reached, this remaining strip explored, 

 and perhaps a trip into the imknown 

 toward Siberia made in one more jour- 

 ney to the north. 



On return from the trip to the west 

 Peary found that while his men had en- 

 deavored to change the position of the 

 Roosevelt, she had become jammed in 

 the ice and her rudder and two blades of 



