Eighth International Geographic Congress 425 



feat was being performed, or appreciated 

 what tremendous geographic obstacles 

 had been overcome by man to make the 

 practically perfect geographic unity of 

 today. 



PEARY'S PLANS FOR 1905-06. 



In New York, at the subscription 

 dinner given by the American Geo- 

 graphical Society of that city to the 

 foreign delegates, Commander Peary 

 aroused tremendous enthusiasm by stat- 

 ing that his North Polar expedition of 

 1905 was assured, and that the keel of 

 his new ship had just been laid. It was 

 on this occasion that the Gold Medal of 

 the Societe de Geographie of Paris was 

 presented to him by Dr Cordier. Speak- 

 ing of his vessel, Mr Peary said : 



"She will, I believe, be the ablest 

 ship that ever pointed her nose inside 

 the Arctic or Antarctic Circle. She will 

 possess such shape as will enable her to 

 rise to the pressure of the ice floes and 

 escape destruction. She will possess 

 such strength of construction as will 

 permit her to stand this pressure, with- 

 out injury. She will possess such fea- 

 tures of bow as will enable her to smash 

 ice in her path, and will contain such 

 engine power as will enable her to force 

 her way through the ice. In maximum 

 dimensions, viz, length over all, breadth 

 of beam, and draught, this ship will be 

 of the size of the British Antarctic ship 

 Discovery ; in displacement she will be 

 somewhat less ; in power she will com- 

 pare with our largest ocean-going tugs. 



' ' My plan of campaign, in a very few 

 words, is to force this ship to the north 

 shores of Grant Land, taking on board 

 at Whale Sound the pick and flower of 

 the Esquimo tribe with whom I have 

 worked and lived so long, to go into 

 winter quarters on that shore, and to 

 start with the earliest returning light 

 on the sledge journey across the central 

 polar pack, utilizing these Esquimos, 

 the people whose heritage is life and 

 work in that very region, entirely for 

 the rank and file of my party. 



' ' Never before has it been in the 

 power of a white man to command the 

 utmost efforts and fullest resources of 

 this little tribe of people as I can do ; 

 and that fact will be of inestimable ad- 

 vantage to me. 



' ' But I will not take time with details. 

 Next summer I shall start North again 

 after that on which I have set my heart. 



' ' Shall I win ? God knows. I hope 

 and dream and pray that I may. But 

 if I do not, some one else will, and here 

 comes in another feature of polar efforts. 



' ' There is no higher, purer field of 

 rivalry than this Arctic and Antarctic 

 quest. 



" If I win, you will have another one 

 of these magnificent tokens for me, and 

 be proud because we are of one blood — 

 the man blood. If I fail, you will try 

 it until some one gets there, and then 

 we shall have one of these for the man 

 who wins, whether he bears the colors 

 of France or England or Germany or 

 Norway or Italy, and shall be proud of 

 him, for we shall know he is a man and 

 come of a nation of men, and that the 

 best man has won." 



SEARCH FOR THE LOST ISLAND OF 

 THE PACIFIC. 



James D. Hague, of New York, told 

 the story of the search for ' ' the reported 

 island or islands ' ' of the North Pacific 

 Ocean between Hawaii and Panama. 

 He discussed the theory that the United 

 States sloop-of-war Levant, which disap- 

 peared mysteriously in i860 on her voy- 

 age from Hawaii to Panama, may have 

 been wrecked on an island in this neigh- 

 borhood, and the possible survival of 

 some of the ship's company. This island 

 is supposed to be about 1,000 to 1,200 

 miles east-southeast from Hawaii, sub- 

 stantially in a direct line between the 

 Port of Hilo and the Bay of Panama. 

 From time to time in the early part of 

 the nineteenth century whalers reported 

 the existence of an island group between 

 Hawaii and Panama. They even named 

 two of the islands, calling them ' ' New 



