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THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE 



Photograph from Rear Admiral Robert E. Peary 



AN ESKIMO SEXTET ON THE MAIN DECK OF PEARY's ARCTIC SHIP "ROOSEVELT" 



"Let there be no doubt as to Peary's popularity in the. Far North. Absolutely square 

 and honest in all his dealings with these black-haired children of the Arctic, firm but ever just 

 and kind in all his relations, he remains to them as the great 'Nalegak,' a leader or chief 

 among men" (see text, page 305). 



With the ever-repeated "Huk! Huk!" 

 and the snapping of whips, men, dogs, 

 and sledges were swallowed np in the 

 rough sea ice. And again silence reigned 

 along the shore, along the face of the 

 cliff, and in and about the deserted snow 

 village. 



PEARY WITHIN 174 MILES OE HIS GOAE 



All went well for a few days, which is 

 but a friendly ruse of the Arctic to in- 

 spire confidence, and then it happened — 

 a six-day blizzard, obliterating the trail, 

 smashing up the ice of the Polar Sea, 

 scattering and destroying caches of food, 

 and driving all natives, white men, and 

 dogs 60 miles to the east (see map, p. 297) . 



One by one the various divisions strug- 

 gled shoreward : but Peary and his men, 

 although knowing that no relief could be 

 expected from the rear, that all food sup- 

 plies were gone, deliberately turned their 

 backs toward home and their faces to- 

 ward their objective point and plodded 



on until they stood at the world's record 

 of "Farthest North," 174 miles from the 

 Pole. 



Weeks later that tired little band 

 climbed feebly up over the ice foot on 

 the northern coast of Greenland, burned 

 their last sledge for fuel, ate one of three 

 dogs, and began their long walk back to 

 the ship, frozen in the ice at Cape Sher- 

 idan. Within two weeks this indomita- 

 ble man was heading west along the 

 northern shores of Grant Land, in a 

 thousand-mile trip to the northern shores 

 of Axel Heiberg Island ! 



Such a journey immediately following 

 such an experience in the Polar Sea was 

 so improbable and apparently impossible 

 so late in the year that many were in- 

 clined to doubt Peary's claim to have 

 reached that distant point. Our finding 

 of his record there in 1914* removes all 

 doubt as to his achievement. 



* See the records of the Donald B. MacMillan 

 Arctic Expedition, 1913-1917. 



