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The National Geographic Magazine 



ered near the 100th meridian is 

 awaited with much interest. 

 There are many possibilities con- 

 nected with this new land. It 

 may be simply a small island or 

 it may be a large body of land 

 extending considerably north- 

 ward, and thus afford future ex- 

 plorers opportunity to carry their 

 base nearer to the Pole than has 

 been possible in the past. In the 

 June, 1904, number of the Na- 

 tional Geographic Magazine, 

 Dr R. A. Harris, of the U. S. 

 Coast and Geodetic Survey, who 

 had been making a careful study 

 of tidal records taken on the 

 north coast of North America, 

 argued that there must be a con- 

 siderable body of land in the un- 

 explored region to the north. He 

 could account for the rise and 

 fall of the tides there in no other 

 way. Dr Harris outlined the 

 supposed land as extending east- 

 ward to about the 100th merid- 

 ian, and also to the Pole. Per- 

 haps the land Peary has found is 

 this "supposed land." 



Peary took his ship, the Roose- 

 velt, further north than any ship 

 had previously been, and passed 

 the winter on the north coast of 

 the most northern known land. 

 In every previous expedition 

 Peary has been prevented from 

 getting his ship to this point be- 

 cause the channel through which 

 his ship must pass has every time 

 been choked with ice. As a re- 

 sult, he has always been obliged 

 to make his base far to the south 

 of his last base, which was only 

 500 miles from the Pole. It has 

 been generally believed that if he 

 could once get his base as far 

 north as he did last year, he 

 would reach the Pole, for the 

 four great sledging journeys he 

 has made in the arctics have aver- 

 aged more than this distance to 

 the Pole and back. Open water 



Photos by Robert E. Peary 



Mat Henson, the Companion of Peary in all 

 Sledging Trips 



