HOXORS TO AAI fXDSEX AND PEARV 



120 



Their conquest depended, in the last 

 analysis, upon the first primal machine, 

 the most wonderful and adjustable of 

 all — the animal, man, and the Eskimo 

 dog. 



TIIIC DISCOVKRICR OF THE SOUTH POLE 



Sitting at this table is a man — look in 

 his eyes and try to imagine to yourselves 

 what those eyes have seen — a man who 

 forced his way across hundreds of miles 

 of icy Antarctic waste ; climbed thou- 

 sands of feet into the frozen Antarctic 

 air, and stood at last more than two miles 

 above sea level, with a frozen desert 

 stretching from his feet to the horizon, 

 and the yellow sun circling parallel with 

 the horizon, at the South Pole — Amund- 

 sen, of Norway. 



Amundsen, for your "Antarctic explo- 

 rations, resulting in the attainments of 

 the South Pole," The National Geo- 

 graphic Society has awarded you this 

 special gold medal. 



You already hold the Society's other 

 grand prize — the Hubbard gold medal — 

 for your successful forcing of the first 

 ship through the Northwest passage, 

 from the Atlantic to the Pacific, and for 

 your definite re-location of the North 

 AFagnetic Pole. 



In one respect this medal is imique. 

 Within its yellow circle is crystallized 

 the a]:»preciation of 175,000 intelligent 

 men and women, the members of this 

 Society. In this respect no other trophy 

 you have, or will receive, can equal it. 



Health, strength, good luck continue 

 with you. 



C.\PT.\IN -AMUNDSEN 



Mr. President, Mr. Chairman, ladies 

 and gentlemen: I am not going to try to 

 make a speech here tonight after all 

 these delightful speeches which we have 

 heard delivered from those illustrious 

 and distinguished men here tonight. I 

 am only briefly going to thank the Xa- 

 tional Geogra])hic Society for the great 

 hospitality and the great kindness which 

 they have shown me this time. This is 

 not the first time. I came here five years 

 ago and I was received when I came as a 

 stranger, but I went away, as I felt, a 

 good, dear friend. I went away with 



the highest honors from the Society. 

 The feelings I had at that time toward 

 the Society were highly strengthened by 

 the hospitality and the sympathy which 

 it extended to me here. 



I certainly appreciate very highly this 

 special gold medal, the highest medal 

 which the Society can bestow upon an 

 explorer. I appreciate it highly, but I 

 also appreciate still more highly the way 

 in which I have been handed this medal. 

 I have been handed this medal. 1 might 

 say, from the most illustrious of the liv- 

 ing polar explorers. 



From the time I was a boy I followed 

 Admiral Peary in his work ; I was with 

 him wdien, in 1890, for the first time, he 

 crossed Greenland. I was with him in 

 my thoughts ; I was too young to try to 

 follow him, but I have followed him in 

 my thoughts and later in his work. I 

 followed him when inch by inch he 

 worked his way toward the north, inch 

 by inch, foot by foot, and yard by yard 

 until he finally succeeded in planting the 

 Stars and Stripes on the most difficult 

 part of our globe. 



I am mighty thankful to you. Admiral 

 Peary, for all the experience and all the 

 assistance you have really given me in 

 my work. 



WHY AMUNDSEN SOUGHT THE SOUTH 

 POLE 



There is one thing wdiich perhaps not 

 many of you here tonight know, and that 

 is that it was really .\dmiral Peary who 

 sent me out to the South Pole. I was 

 preparing my trip toward the Xorth 

 Polar regions — it may be to the Xorth 

 Pole — in 1909. It was not very easy to 

 start an ex])edition from Xorway. for it 

 was hard work among us to raise money 

 and I was preparing this expedition 

 slowly. 



Then suddenly the news flashed all 

 over the w^orld that the Xorth Pole had 

 been attained : that Admiral Peary had 

 planted the Stars and Strii)es u]:) there. 

 The money, which had been .scarce, now 

 went down to nothing. I could not get 

 a cent more and I was in the midst of 

 my preparations. 



One of the last mysterious points nf 

 the globe had been discovered. 



