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THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE 



much ashamed to appear before you at 

 so late an hour as this. But I am com- 

 forted and encouraged by the reflection, 

 as I introduce myself, that this is a thing 

 which can never occur again. There will 

 never be another occason in which a 

 speaker will arise to present a medal to a 

 man who has taken part in the discovery 

 of the North Pole. 



There is just one thought which in the 

 midst of these festivities and congratula- 

 tions weighs rather painfully upon me, 

 ladies and gentlemen. For some centu- 

 ries, as you have already been told, the 

 discovery of the North Pole has been an 

 object of curiosity, interest, and aspira- 

 tion to all the civilized peoples of the 

 world. They have thought about it, they 

 have wondered when and how it would 

 happen. A great German philosopher 

 has observed that the pursuit of truth is 

 even better than the possession of truth. 

 Bold men were excited by the pursuit of 

 the North Pole, and all the world was in- 

 terested in following their deeds of dar- 

 ing. Now at last that pursuit has come 

 to an end. The pole has been discovered. 

 Commander Peary has found the pole. 

 But the world has lost the pole. We have 

 no longer this achievement to look for- 

 ward to. The riddle has been solved, 

 the curtain has been lifted, and was it 

 fair to posterity to take away such an ob- 

 ject of aspiration from it? I tremble to 

 think, ladies and gentlemen, of what will 

 happen when all the riddles of the earth 

 have been solved and those countless gen- 

 erations that are to follow us have noth- 

 ing that they do not know about this 

 habitable globe of ours, a small globe, 

 after all, too small for the restless and 

 eager mind of man. 



Now, having reheved my mind by this 

 outburst of sadness, I come to the busi- 

 ness which you have entrusted to my 

 charge, and that is to present this medal 

 to Captain Bartlett. It was a graceful 

 and charming thought on your part, gen- 

 tlemen of the National Geographic Soci- 

 ety, that you should present this medal to 

 Captain Bartlett, and I can assure you 

 that it will be heartily appreciated in the 

 good country to which Captain Bartlett 



belongs, and by those who, in other lands, 

 on the shores of many seas, live under 

 the British Crown. I thank you and the 

 National Geographic Society for it. But 

 you have already had an acknowledg- 

 ment by cable from the President of the 

 Royal Geographical Society — one who 

 bears an honored name, for he is the son 

 of the great Charles Darwin — of the 

 pleasure which it has given to that oldest 

 of the Geographical Societies of the 

 world. 



Now, Captain Bartlett belongs to an 

 ancient and fam.ous line of Arctic ex- 

 plorers who have sailed under the flag of 

 England. That line begins with the 

 ever to be honored name of Henry Hud- 

 son, who perished in the great bay that 

 he discovered. And it is illumined by 

 many an illustrious name thereafter,, 

 among whom perhaps the most famous is 

 Sir Edward Parry, who made his won- 

 derful advance toward the pole, far out- 

 stripping any who had gone before him; 

 Sir John Franklin, Captains Ross and 

 McClure, and McClintock, and many an- 

 other of whom time would fail me to tell,, 

 dauntless spirits who bent their strength 

 and their powers to the work of polar and 

 Arctic exploration. 



I remember seeing long, long ago, at 

 meetings of the British Association and 

 of the Royal Geographical Society in 

 Britain, some of these ancient weather- 

 beaten veterans of polar exploration, and 

 I know how it would rejoice them now to 

 think that that for which they labored had 

 at last been achieved. And if you want 

 to know that the gallantry which ani- 

 mated those men and which made them 

 bear cold and hunger and ill-health, and 

 face all the perils of snowy wastes and 

 floating ice in the pursuit of discovery, if 

 you want to know that that spirit lives 

 still with undiminished force in men of 

 British stock, you have only to read the 

 lately published narrative of the gallant 

 effort to reach the South Pole made by 

 Lieutenant Shackleton and his comrades, 

 which brought them within 97 miles of 

 that remote and perious goal. This was 

 done by the courage and hardihood of 

 Lieutenant Shackleton. 



