THE NORTH POLE.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXVII, Issue 2601, 8 September 1909, Page 5

THE NORTH POLE.

SUCCESS OF PEARY’S EXPEDITION THE POLE REACHED ON APRIL 6. THE PARTY AND THE SHIP SAFE. UNITED PkESH ASSOCIATION—ComtIGHT, (Received September 7, 10.30 p.m.) • 1 , LONDON, Sept. 7. Reuter’s Agency lias received a telegram from Commander Peary, sent from Indian Harbor, Labrador, stating that he has nailed the Stars and Stripes to the North Pole. ST. JOHNS, Sept. 7. The Governor of Newfoundland has •received a similar telegram containing Commander Peary’s congratulations because the captain and -crew of his steamer were Newfoundlanders. NEW YORK, Sept. 7. Mr. Herbert Bridgman, secretary of the Arctic Club of America, has received ' a letter in Commander Peary’s code, stating that the North Pole had been reached and that the steamer Roosevelt is safe. x The -“.New York Times” states that * Commander Peary telegraphs from Indian Harbor, via Cape Ray: “I reached the North Pole on April 6th, and expect to arrive in Chateau Bay on September 7th. Secure control of the wire for me there, and arrange to expedite transmission of a big story.” Mr. McMillan, a member of Peary’s party, cabled to the Worcester Academy, Massachusetts, where lie is instructor in mathematics: “The top of the earth reached at last. Greetings to the faculty and the boys.” LONDON, Sept. 7. Commander Peary telegraphed to his wife: “Have made good at last. Have the old Pole. Am well, love. Will wire again from Chateau.” Mrs. Peary replied: “All well. Best love. God bless you; hurry home.” The “Times” recalls that Commander Peary stated, before he left: “If I reach the Pole during the coming •winter my friends will hear of my triumph between August 15 and September 15. DR. COOK’S COMMENT. When Dr. Cook was informed of Commander Peary’s success, he said: “He must have reached the Pole by quite another route than mine.” He added: “There is enough honor for two.” Sir George Nares suggests in . view of the coincidence of the simultaneous discovery that it is possible that Dr. Cook learned of Peary’s success and was making an effort to reach civilisation first with a priority claim, of the discovery. (Received September 7, 10.30 p.m.) The newspapers unreservedly accept Commander ’ Peary’s cablegrams. - [Dr. Cook, according to his own statement, antedated Peary’s visit to the Pole by nearly twelve months, as he discovered it on April 21st of last year.] DR COOK’S METHODS CRITICISED LONDON, Sept. 6. Mr. C. Bernacchi, physicist, who accompanied the'' Discovery’s Antarctic expedition, suggests that the altitude of the sun and temperature of the air mentioned by Dr Cook must be distorted by refraction, and that therefore it is impossible to determine the position of the Pole with the certainty he claims. Dr Cook has been strongly criticised for sending his diary to America, presumably by a vessel starting before the Hansegede. [The Hansegede first brought the news to Lerwick, where the vessel anchored’ for two hours, and then proceeded to Copenhagen.] The critics emphasise that chief among the inducements to accompany the documents himself ought to have been that of rejoining his wife when he received his countrymen’s welcome. Dr Cook states that he had no definite idea of going to the Pole, but finding the Eskimos and dogs ready, he started. He states that. he saw no traces of Commander Peary’s expedition, which left Etah last September, PEARY’S FORMER EXPEDITION. The 1905-6 trip of Commander Peary, who has succeeded in reaching the North Pole, throws much light on the Way North. . , . » The following interesting review of his book drives home some points that are of special interest now, particularly his claim to having cleared the way:— “A constant dropping wears away the rock, and by hammering away at the problem with a will and on tne same line, the North Pole will doubtless be reached some day. (Already the prophet is rewarded.) Commander Pdarv if he has not achieved success m his great enterprise, has certainly deserved it. For twenty years he has kept hammering away’ at the task of reaching the Farthest North, by .way of Smith Sound, which, mainly through his efforts, has come to be known as the ‘American route.’ In 19Ub 'he returned from a voyage, on whichj although unsuccessful in' reaching the goal, he heat all previous records northwards. No sooner has he got the duty of telling the story of the 1906 expedition off hi® hands, than he starts again on the old emprise, by the old road of approach, the expenses of this, its final expedition’ to 90deg. north—some £20,-, 000—being once more borne by the Pearv Arctic Club, which, through its president, Mr. Morris Jessup, expresses unbounded confidence that tins time the American flag will be planted at the • spot where there is continual day from ' March 21 to September 23. grounds, for this- hope, and also for doubts .whether even the coming year will see the secret of the Pole laid;, bare, are to be 'found in ' Commander Peary s admirably crisp and business like narrative 6f his last expedition. Thus he sums p cjri rs t__Xhe attainment of the Highest North’ (86deg. 7min,). leaving a •distance of but 174 nautical miles yet ‘to be conquered this side the Pole, nar-

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rowing the unknown distance between ray highest and Cagni’s (Italian expedition) to less than 381 miles, and throwing the major remaining unknown Arctic area into the region between the Pole and the Behring Strait. Second. —-The _ determination of the existence of a distant new land north-west of the north-western part of Grant Land, probably an island in the westerly extern sion of the North American archipelago. Third.—The distinct widening of our horizon are regards ice and other conditions in the western half of the central Polar Sea. Fourth.—The traversing and delineation of the unknown northern coast between Aldrich’s Farthest West in 1876 and Sverdrup’s Farthest North in 1902. Fifth.—The determination of the unique glacial fringe and floeberg nursery of the Grant Land coast.” Further ' ‘tida] and meterological observations have been made, soundings taken on the Smith Sound outlet of the Polar Sea, and also along the north coast of Grant Land, and samples of the bottom secured; the existence of considerable numbers of Arctic reindeer in the most northern lands determined ; the range of the musk-ox widened and defined, and a new comparative census of the Whale Sound Esquimaux made.” ' In view of its leader, the expedition of 1906 has “simplified the attainment of the Pole fifty per cent,” and has accentuated the fact that man and the Esquimaux dog are the only two me, chanisms capable of meeting all the various contingencies of serious Arctic work, and that the American route to the Pole, and the methods and equipment used “remain the most practicable for attaining that object.” He says that had the winter, of 1905 to 1906 been a normal season in the Arctic regions, and not. as it was, a particularly open brie, “there is not a member of the expedition who doubts that it would have attained the Pole” ; and ho believes that had he known before leaving the land that h© now knows of the conditions to the northward, he could have so modified his route and arrangements that he “could have reached the Pol© in spit© of th© open season.” Another expedition, following in his steps and profiting by his experience, can not only attain the Pole, but “secure the other remaining desiderata of the central Arctic Sea —namely, a line of deep sea soundings from the north snore oi Grant Land to the Pole and the delmeation of the unknown gap of the north-east coast line of Greenland from Cape Morris Jessup southward to Cape Bismarck.” “Some of these propositions may he questioned, but there can be no question that Commander Peary has brought the problem of reaching the Pole a" considerable stage nearer to solution. Yet he confesses that his feelings when he reached the turning point were the reverse of exultant; he felt that ‘the mere beating of the record was but an empty bauble compared with the splendid jewel on which he had set his heart for years, and for which, on this expedition, he had almost literally been straining his life out.’ Disappointment combined with a certain degree of physical exhaustion from the killing pace over heavy ice on short rations, brought on a deep fit of ‘the blues.’ Twenty years bad he labored to attain tbe prize, and yet ho had missed it again. ‘Oh, for the untiring energy and elasticity of twenty years ago, with the experience of today.’ But Commander Pearv retunis to the quest with energy and enthusiasm apparently intact; and with all his experience to (help him forward. ther his companions, his ship, the Roosevelt, nor even his Esquimaux helpers, had anything to do with the failure and disappointment. No company could have worked more cheerily and harmoniously- together; the Roosevelt, a steamer built on the lines of a Scottish whaler, did more than was expected of her in sailing and icework; and with the aid of the native Greenlanders, he affirms, ‘the world shall discover Hie Pole.’ ” In a lecture after his return, Commander Peary said that he was convinced of the existence of land near the Pole. About 100 miles north-west of Grant Land he found an open Polar sea, and in it driftwood, apparently from rivers traversing some unmapped land. In announcing the plans of his present expedition, Commander Peary summed them up as follows: First, the utilisation of the Smith Sound or “American Route.” This, he says, must be accepted to-day as the best of all possible routes for a determined aggressive, attack upon the Pole. Its advantages are a land base 100 miles nearer the Pole than is to he found at any other point of the entire periphery of the Arctic Ocean, a long stretch of coast line upon which: to return,' and a safe and (to him) wellknown line of retreat in the event of any mishap to the ship, of assistance. \ : Second, the selection of ;a winter base which commands a wider range of the central Polar sea and its surrounding coasts than any other possible base in the Arctic regions. Cape Sheridan is practically equi-distant from Crocket Land,' from the remaining unknown portion of the north-east coast of Greenland, and from his “Nearest the Pole” of 1906. Third, the use of sledges and Esquimaux dogs. “Man and the Esquimaux dog,” Commander Peary observes, “are the only two machines capable of such adjustment as to meet the wild demands and contingencies of Arctic travel. Airships, motor-cars, trained Polar bears, etc., are all premature, except as a means of attracting public attention.” " Fourth, the use of hyperborean aborigines (the Whale Sound Esquimaux) for the rank and flip of the sledge party. “It seems unnecessary,’’ the -'explorer concludes, “to enlarge upon the fact that the man whose heritage is life arid work in that very region must present the best obtainable material for the personnel of a serious Arctic party.”' Speaking of his Esquimaux, CommiMider Peary said:—“l shall pick them up as the Roosevelt passes on her way to Smith Sound 1 and Robeson Channel, along the west coast of Greenland, which has come to be known, as the American route. Their wives and children go with them, and pass the dark night winter months near the musk-ox grounds in camps along the northernmost shores. The women are indispensable for making clothes from the furs we get by hunting and for refitting the sledges.” ' • - 'i< [Robert Edwin Beany is President of the American Geographical Society, president of the eighth International Geographical Congress, member of the American Society of Civil Engineers, Honorary and Corresponding Member of various Geographical Societies, civil engineer in the United States Navy with the rank of commander. He was horn at Cresson Springs, Pennsylvania, United States, on May 6th, 1856, being the only child of Charles N. Peary and Mary Wiley Peary. In 1888 he married Josephine C. Diebitsch, of Washy .

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ington, and has one son, one having died. Peary was educated at Bowdoin College, Brunswick, Maine, United States. He entered the United States navy iri 1881, and was assistant engineer on the Government surveys on the Nicaragua ship canal in 18851886, and on the reconnaissance of Greenland Inland lee 1886, sub-chief engineer Nicaragua Canal Co. in 1887, and was superintending engineer for the United States naval dry dock at League - Island from 1888 to 1891. His first expedition to North' Greenland! for the determination, of the insularity of Greenland was mad© in 1901-2, and he made a special expedition to North Greenland in 1893-95. He made summer voyages to the Arctic in 1896 and 1897, and discovered and secured the Cape York meteorites, the largest known meteorites in the world. His third Arctic expedition for the discovery of the North .Pole was made in 1898-1902, when he rounded the northern end of Greenland, th© most northerly known land in the world. Peary is a gold medallist of the Royal, Royal Scottish, Paris, American,, and Philadelphia Geographical Societies. He has written vai’ious papers in geographical and other journals, and wrote his book, “Northward Over the Great Ice," a complete narrative of Arctic work, in 1898.]