PEARY'S EXPLORATIONS IN THE FAR NORTH 



By Gilbert Grosvenor 



President of the National Geographic Society 



THE struggle for the North Pole 

 began nearly one hundred years 

 before the landing of the Pilgrim 

 Fathers at Plymouth Rock, being inaugu- 

 rated (1527) by that king of many dis- 

 tinctions, Henry VIII of England. 



Scores of hardy navigators — British, 

 French, Dutch, German, Scandinavian, 

 and Russian — followed Davis, all seek- 

 ing to hew across the Pole the much- 

 coveted short route to China and the In- 

 dies. The rivalry was keen and costly in 

 lives, ships, and treasures ; but from the 

 time of Henry VIII for three and one- 

 half centuries, or until 1882 (with the 

 exception of 1594- 1606, when, through 

 William Barents, the Dutch held the rec- 

 ord), Great Britain's flag was always 

 waving nearest the top of the globe.* 



Immense treasures of money and lives 

 were expended by the nations to explore 

 the northern ice world and to attain the 

 apex of the earth ; but all efforts to reach 

 the Pole had failed, notwithstanding the 

 unlimited sacrifice of gold and energy 

 and blood which had been poured out 

 without stint for nearly four centuries. 



pEary's interest in the arctic 



AWAKENED IN l886 



A brief summer excursion to Green- 

 land in 1886 aroused Robert E. Peary, a 

 civil engineer in the United States Navy, 

 to an interest in the Polar problem. 

 Peary a few years previously had been 

 graduated from Bowdoin College second 

 in his class — a position which means un- 

 usual mental vigor in an institution which 

 is noted for the fine scholarship and in- 

 tellect of its alumni. He realized at once 

 that the goal which had eluded so many 

 hundreds of ambitious and dauntless men 

 could be won only by a new method of 

 attack. 



The first Arctic problem with which 

 Peary grappled was considered at that 



* In 1882 Lockwood and Brainard, of Greely's 

 expedition, won the record of Farthest North 

 for the United States, and we held it until 

 Nan sen's feat of i8q6. 



time in importance second only to the 

 conquest of the Pole, namely, to deter- 

 mine the insularity of Greenland and the 

 extent of its projection northward. At 

 the very beginning of his first expedition 

 to Greenland, in 1891, he suffered an ac- 

 cident which sorely taxed his patience as 

 well as his body, and which is mentioned 

 here as it illustrates the grit and stamina 

 of his moral and physical make-up. 



As his ship, the Kite, was working its 

 way through the ice fields off the Green- 

 land shore, a cake of ice became wedged 

 in the rudder, causing the wheel to re- 

 verse. One of the spokes jammed Peary's 

 leg against the casement, making it im- 

 possible to extricate himself until both 

 bones of the leg were broken. 



The party urged him to return to the 

 United States for the winter and to re- 

 sume his exploration the following year ; 

 but Peary insisted on being landed, as 

 originally planned, at McCormick Bay, 

 stating that the money of his friends had 

 been invested in the project, and that he 

 must "make good'' to them. 



The assiduous nursing of Mrs. Peary, 

 aided by the bracing air, so speedily re- 

 stored his strength that at the ensuing 

 Christmas festivities which were ar- 

 ranged for the Eskimos he outraced on 

 "snowshoes all the natives and his own 

 men ! 



HE ASCENDS THE GREENLAND ICE-CAP 



In the following May, with one com- 

 panion, Astrup, he ascended to the sum- 

 mit of the great ice-cap which covers the 

 interior of Greenland, 5,000 to 8,000 feet 

 in elevation, and pushed northward for 

 500 miles over a region where the foot 

 of man had never trod before, in tem- 

 peratures ranging from 10 degrees to 50 

 degrees below zero. Imagine his sur- 

 prise on descending from the table-land 

 to enter a little valley radiant with gor- 

 geous flowers and alive with murmur- 

 ing bees, where musk-oxen were lazily 

 browsing. 



This sledding journey, which he dupli- 



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