PEARY'S TWENTY YEARS SERVICE IN 

 THE ARCTICS* 



The folloiving article is from "Handbook of Arctic Discoveries" by Major 

 General A. IV. Greely, U. S. A., and is copyrighted by the publishers of the vol- 

 ume, Messrs Little, Brozvn & Co., of Boston. 



THE most brilliant work on the 

 inland ice is that of Mr R. E. 

 Peary, U. S. Navy, who, in 

 1886, with a Dane, Maigaard, reached a 

 point near Disco, some 50 miles from the 

 sea. 



Renewing his explorations in the Kite, 

 Peary landed at McCormick Bay August, 

 1891, and most courageously persisted in 

 his work, although his leg was broken 

 while crossing Melville Bay. A house 

 was erected, but autumnal efforts to es- 

 tablish a cache at Humboldt Glacier were 

 futile. In 1892 Peary, able to travel, ex- 

 plored Inglefield Gulf in April, and then 

 turned to the accumulation of stores at 

 the edge of the inland ice, some 15 miles 

 distant. His main journey commenced 

 May 14, when the true inland ice was 

 reached with 16 dogs and 4 sledges. He 

 crossed the divide of 5,000 feet elevation 

 between Whale Sound and Kane Sea, and 

 at a point 130 miles from McCormick 

 Bay sent back Cook, who had supported 

 him thus far, with a man and two dog 

 sledges. Peary proceeded with Astrup, 

 and looked down into Petermann Fjord 

 May 31 ; but crevasses here and at Saint 

 George Fjord obliged them to make a 

 detour to the east and southeast. Finally, 

 on May 26, they reached the north edge 

 of the inland ice, near 82° N., whence 

 they looked to the north on the brown- 

 red, comparatively ice-free land discov- 

 ered by Lockwood in 1882. The fjord, 

 into which they could not descend, doubt- 

 less connects with Nordenskjold Inlet 

 of Lockwood, 1882, and Peary supports 

 Greely's opinion of 1884, that Greenland 

 here ends, and that the discovery of 

 Lockwood is an entirely new land. 



Unable to go farther north, Peary 

 turned to the southeast to make the east 

 coast of Greenland, and, following the 

 edge of the ice-cap, reached Independence 



Bay July 4, 1892, and climbed Navy Cliff, 

 4,000 feet high, 8t° 37' N., 34 W. To 

 the north was an ice- free land extending 

 to the east some 50 miles, to 25° W. 

 longitude; to the east and southeast the 

 East Greenland Ocean was covered by 

 disintegrating sea ice. Five musk-oxen 

 were killed, which relieved anxiety for 

 dog food on the homeward trip. The re- 

 turn journey to McCormick Bay, about 

 450 miles distant, was made almost in a 

 straight line, the ice-divide proving to be 

 8,000 feet above the sea. 



Believing that even more extended dis- 

 coveries could be made in northeast 

 Greenland by again crossing its ice-cap, 

 Peary, raising funds for the purpose by 

 a series of lectures, established a station 

 at Bowdoin Bay in 1893. With 8 men, 

 12 sledges, and 92 dogs, he ascended the 

 inland ice March 6, 1894, and in 13 days 

 advanced 134 miles, to an elevation of 

 5,500 feet. Storm-bound by violent gales 

 and extreme cold, Peary saw his dogs 

 die and his men frosted, so that a general 

 advance was impossible. Caching all 

 surplus stores, principally pemmican, he 

 sent back the disabled force, and with in- 

 domitable but fruitless energy marched 

 on with three selected men. In 14 days 

 he traveled only 85 miles, under ex- 

 tremely adverse conditions, being finally 

 obliged to return with dying dogs and 

 failing men. Abandoning sledges and 

 caching pemmican, he reached Bowdoin 

 Bay on April 15 with only 26 living dogs 

 of the original 92. 



Later his chief support, Astrup, 

 sledged to Melville Bay and charted a 

 considerable portion of its indefinitely 

 located northeastern shore. 



PEARy's second crossing of GREENLAND 



When the visiting steamer Falcon ar- 

 rived, in August, 1894, prudence de- 



