450 



The National Geographic Magazine 



her propeller torn away. With speed 

 reduced by a damaged propeller and a 

 temporarily rigged and extremely crude 

 rudder, the Roosevelt started homeward, 

 landing at Cape Breton, Newfoundland, 

 November 23, 1906. 



The stereopticon views with which the 

 lecture was illustrated were remarkably 

 good, and were a great factor in making 

 the story clear and in elucidating the sit- 

 uation about the Pole. Pictures of the 

 Eskimos were especially interesting, 

 showing women with animation in their 

 faces — a quality that seems to be abso- 

 lutely lacking in the average pictures of 

 these people. Laughing babies, dressed 

 exactly as are their fathers and mothers, 

 were shown, and one remarkable type of 

 feminine beauty, the daughter of a chief 

 with whom Peary had become acquainted 

 during former trips to the North. Pic- 

 tures of the animals which are found in 

 the Arctic regions showed strange-look- 

 ing musk-oxen, a huge polar bear, large 

 white Arctic hare, and some beautiful 

 specimens of the snow-white Arctic deer. 



IMPORTANT LESSONS TAUGHT BY THE LAST 

 EXPEDITION 



The drift of the polar ice iiow is con- 

 stantly to the eastward. On the side of 

 the Pole adjacent to eastern Siberia and 

 Alaska is a great field of ice, whence the 

 chilled air flows east to equalize the 

 barometric pressure in the north Atlantic, 

 where from the perennially open waters 

 the comparatively warm air rises. This 

 wind, blowing with a constantly varying 

 intensity, drives the packed ice eastward, 

 and the explorer traveling toward the 

 Pole is as a man attempting to row across 

 a river. 



This drift is that on which Peary 

 counts for success on the next dash to 

 the Pole, but it is also that which carried 

 him from his destination on his last dash. 



Had the winter of 1906 been a hard 

 one and the ice pack closed in the spring, 

 it is the Commander's firm conviction that 

 he would not have had to turn back when 

 within 200 miles of the Pole, and it is 

 his belief that, takinp- advantage of the 



experience gained on this last trip, not 

 only can the Pole be reached when the 

 next dash is made from the American 

 side, but that the one remaining unex- 

 plored strip of Greenland coast can be 

 mapped at the same time. The sledge 

 parties should start in the next trip from 

 a point much farther west than did his 

 sledges, and should aim not directly at 

 the Pole, but toward a point west of it, 

 so that the drifting ice will carry the 

 party to it. 



It is not severely low temperature that 

 is the obstacle to Arctic exploration. A 

 sound man, properly cared for and prop- 

 erly clothed, should not feel that as much 

 as we in the temperate zone do the sud- 

 den changes of temperature to which we 

 are subject. It is the long winter night — 

 a nerve-wearing experience, one which 

 has driven men insane — and the necessity 

 of carrying all provisions which make 

 Arctic exploration perilous. 



"The discovery not only of the North, 

 but of the South Pole as well, is not only 

 our privilege, but our duty and destiny, 

 as much as the building of the Panama 

 Canal and the control of the Pacific. 



The canal and the control of the Pa- 

 cific mean wealth, commercial suprem- 

 acy, and unassailable power, but the dis- 

 covery of the Poles spells just as strongly 

 as the others, national prestige, with the 

 moral strength that comes from the feel- 

 ing that not even century-defying prob- 

 lems can withstand us. 



Accept my statement, the attainment 

 of the North and South Poles (the oppo- 

 site ends of the earth's axis) by Amer- 

 ican expeditions would be worth to this 

 country many times the few thousands 

 needed, just for the closer bond, the 

 deeper patriotism resulting, when every 

 one of the hundred millions of us could 

 say, "The Stars and Stripes float at both 

 ends of the earth's axis and the whole 

 world turns about them." 



Mere sentiment, perhaps ; but senti- 

 ment has won battles and overthrown 

 empires, and makes the diiTerence be- 

 tween Satan and Saint." 



