Influence of Forestry on Lumber Industry 381 



They have become accustomed to your 

 leadership, and if you succeed in trans- 

 porting the selected hunters and the 

 best families to the north shore of Grant 

 Land, as you propose, you will thereby 

 establish a base which will enable you 

 to live in safety and comparative com- 

 fort for an indefinite period. 



Grant Land as such base has great 

 advantages over Spitzbergen, Franz 

 Josef Land, or any other known point, 

 in that it has an extensive shore line, 

 which a party retreating from the Pole 

 cannot fail to find, whatever may be 

 the extent of the polar drift. 



In establishing a colony of Esquimaux 

 at this point, you thereby establish a 

 self-sustaining base at the nearest prac- 

 ticable point to the Pole. Such self- 

 sustaining base has not heretofore been 

 established in any such high latitude. 

 Your ability to force your ships to a high 

 northing with this Esquimau colony is 

 all important to your success. Such 

 northing has been made by the Polaris, 

 the Alert, the Discovery, and the Proteus. 

 There would seem to be no reason why 

 you can not do the same. Knowledge of 

 ice conditions that has been gained since 

 that time will certainly enable you to 

 provide a ship better adapted to the pur- 

 pose than either one of these. 



The attainment of the Pole should be 

 your main object. Nothing short will 

 suffice. The discovery of the Poles is 

 all that remains to complete the map of 

 the world. That map should be com- 

 pleted in our generation and by our 

 countrymen. If it is claimed that the 

 enterprise is fraught with danger and 

 privation, the answer is that geograph- 

 ical discovery in all ages has been pur- 

 chased at the price of heroic courage 

 and noble sacrifice. Our national pride 

 is involved in the undertaking, and this 

 department expects that you will ac- 

 complish your purpose and bring fur- 

 ther distinction to a service of illustrious 

 traditions. 



In conclusion, I am pleased to inform 

 you that the President of the United 

 States sympathizes with your cause and 

 approves the enterprise. 



With best wishes for your health and 

 confidence in your success, 

 I am, respectfully, 



Charles H. Darling, 



Acting Secretary. 



The Peary Arctic Club, which so gen- 

 erously supported Mr Peary's explora- 

 tions 1 898-1 902, have contributed the 

 funds that make this new expedition 

 possible. 



THE INFLUENCE OF FORESTRY UPON THE 



LUMBER INDUSTRY OF THE 



UNITED STATES* 



By Overton W. Price, 



Assistant Forester, Bureau of Forestry 



THE development of the lumber 

 industry in this country is 

 without parallel. It now ranks 

 fourth among the great manufacturing 



industries of the United States, and 

 represents an invested capital of about 

 $611,000,000 and an annual outlay of 

 over $100,000,000 in wages. It af- 



Republished from Ihe Year Book of the Department of Agriculture for 1902. 



