PEARY'S EXPLORATIONS IN THE FAR NORTH 



321 



Arctic reindeer, musk-ox, etc., which his 

 explorations had proved comparatively 

 abundant, thus with fresh meat keeping 

 his men fit and good-tempered through 

 the depressing winter night ; and, lastly, 

 to train the Eskimo to become his sledg- 

 ing crew. 



In his first North Polar expedition, 

 which lasted for four years, 1898- 1902, 

 Peary failed to get nearer than 343 miles 

 to the Pole. Each successive year dense 

 packs of ice blocked the passage to the 

 Polar Ocean, compelling him to make his 

 base approximately 700 miles from the 

 Pole, or 200 miles south of the head- 

 quarters of Nares, too great a distance 

 from the goal to be overcome in one 

 short season. During this trying period, 

 by sledging feats which in distance and 

 physical obstacles overcome exceeded 

 the extraordinary records made in Green- 

 land, he explored and mapped thousands 

 of miles of coast line of Greenland and 

 of the islands west and north of Green- 

 land. 



PEARY LED HUNDREDS INTO THE ARCTIC 

 WITH ONLY TWO TRAGIC ACCIDENTS 



On the next attempt Peary insured 

 reaching the Polar Ocean by designing 

 and constructing the Roosevelt, whose 

 resistless frame crushed its way to the 

 desired haven on the shores of the Polar 

 sea. From here he made that wonderful 

 march of 1906 to 8y° 6', a new world's 

 record. Winds of unusual fury, by open- 

 ing big leads, robbed him of the Pole and 

 nearly of his life. 



The last Peary expedition, 1908- 1909, 

 resulted in the discovery of the Pole and 

 of the deep ocean surrounding it. The 

 396 miles from Greely's farthest had 

 been vanquished as follows: 1900, 30 

 miles; 1902, 23 miles; 1906, 169 miles; 

 1909, 174 miles. 



No better proof of the minute care 

 with which every campaign was prear- 

 ranged can be given than the fact that, 

 though Peary has taken hundreds of men 

 north with him on his various expedi- 

 tions, he has brought them all back, and 

 in good health, with the exception of 

 two, who lost their lives in accidents for 

 which the leader was in no wise respon- 

 sible. What a contrast this record is to 

 the long list of fatalities from disease, 



ADMIRAL PEARY S PHOTOGRAPH OF THE 

 NORTH POLE 



The northern axis of the glohe is in the midst 

 of a vast Polar Sea, and the mound of the 

 photograph is a mere mass of snow and ice 

 utilized by Peary as a pinnacle for the Amer- 

 ican flag which floats at the top. On his re- 

 turn journey, five miles from the Pole : , the ex- 

 plorer came upon a narrow crack in the ice, 

 through which he attempted a sounding. The 

 length of his apparatus was 9,000 feet, but the 

 lead did not strike bottom. So. the depth of 

 the sea at the Pole is still undetermined. 



frost, shipwreck, and starvation which in 

 the popular mind has made the word 

 arctic synonymous with tragedy and 

 death. 



THE PRIZE OF EOUR CENTURIES IS HIS 

 REWARD 



Thus Robert E. Peary crowned a life 

 devoted to the exploration of the icy 

 North and to the advancement of science 

 by the hard-won discovery of the North 

 Pole. The prize of four centuries of 

 striving yielded at last to the most per- 

 sistent and scientific attack ever waged 

 against it. Peary's success was made 

 possible by long experience, which gave 

 him a thorough knowledge of the diffi- 

 culties to be overcome, and by an un- 

 usual combination of mental and phy- 



