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manded that the entire party should re- 

 turn to the United States. Food and 

 fuel were insufficient, more extended ex- 

 plorations were improbable, and arrange- 

 ments for a visiting ship in 1895 were 

 merely problematical. With determina- 

 tion and courage bordering on rashness, 

 Peary decided to winter at Bowdoin Bay 

 with two volunteers, Lee and Henson. 



Utilizing throughout the winter the 

 entire resources of the region and gain- 

 ing Eskimo recruits, Peary accumulated 

 supplies on the inland ice, and started 

 northward April 2, 1895, with his 2 men, 

 4 Eskimo, and 63 dogs, drawing 6 

 sledges. On the third march an Eskimo 

 deserted with his outfit ; but Peary, un- 

 discouraged, pushed on. Most unfor- 

 tunately, the heavy snows had obliterated 

 all landmarks, and the expected main- 

 stay — the pemmican cache — could not be 

 found. Failure now impended, but, send- 

 ing back his Eskimo allies, from this 

 camp, 134 miles inland and 5,500 feet 

 above the sea, Peary continued his jour- 

 ney, 41 dogs draggiiiT the 3 sledges. The 

 temperatures ran from -10° to —43° ; the 

 elevation increased to 8,000 feet ; travel 

 was bad ; sledges broke down ; Lee was 

 frosted ; dogs died ; but Peary persisted 

 on his hopeless journey. Finally, with 

 but II exhausted dogs, i sledge, and a 

 disabled man, Peary, May 8, left Lee 

 camped 16 miles from the coast, and with 

 Henson sought game ahead unsuccess- 

 fully for 4 days. Scant walrus meat re- 

 served could barely feed their dogs dur- 

 ing the home journey, but with desperate 

 courage they advanced their camp to In- 

 dependence Bay, Peary's farthest in 1892. 

 The descent to the sea practically de- 

 stroyed their sledging equipment; but 

 10 musk-oxen restored vigor to men and 

 dogs. Further game failing, with 9 dogs 

 and food for 17 days, they turned home- 

 ward in a frantic race against starvation. 

 Twenty-five forced marches, in which 

 necessarily ever3'thing but food was aban- 

 doned, brought them, in desperate condi- 

 tion, June 25, to Bowdoin Bay, whence 

 by the steamer Kite they reached New- 

 foundland September 21, 1895. 



If Peary's advance beyond his buried 

 cache was one of the rashest of Arctic 

 journeys, yet the courage, fertility of 

 resource, and physical endurance dis- 

 played by him and his companions place 

 their efforts among the most notable in 

 Arctic sledging. Other parties under 

 less desperate circumstances have met 

 with mortality, and only escaped total 

 fatality by relief from their reserve party, 

 which adjunct to Arctic exploration ex- 

 perience indicates to be essential to 

 safety. 



The two crossings of Greenland by 

 Peary must be classed among the most 

 brilliant geographic feats of late years, 

 his journeys far surpassing in extent 

 that of his ice-cap predecessor, Nansen, 

 who crossed Greenland more than 1,000 

 miles to the south. 



The physical collections and observa- 

 tions enlarge the previously existing 

 wealth of scientific data of western 

 Greenland. Doubtless the most impor- 

 tant scientific results derived from the 

 Peary voyages are those connected with" 

 Professor Chamberlin's examination of 

 the glaciers of Inglefield Gulf, in which 

 survey photography was freely used and 

 to great advantage. Geology must 

 profit from this study of glaciers present- 

 ing such varied forms, especially as the 

 unusually free exposure of structure 

 facilitated examination of vertical faces, 

 convoluted and laminated formations. 



The most attractive additions to 

 knowledge are the ethnological studies 

 of the Cape York Eskimo, which in 1895 

 numbered 253 — 140 males and 113 fe- 

 males. These studies, made by Pearv, 

 Lee, and Dr F. A. Cook, appear in a 

 memoir forming an appendix to Peary's 

 "Northward Over the Great Ice" (2 

 vols., New York, 1898), though very in- 

 teresting details are scattered through 

 the general narrative. 



In a summer voyage of 1896 Peary 

 obtained and. brought from the vicinity 

 of Bushman Island, east of Cape York, 

 two large meteorites. The following 

 year he was fortunate enough to be able 

 to obtain and bring to New York citv 



