ARCTIC EXPLORATION. COMMANDER PEARY'S EXPEDITION.

Evening Post, Volume LXXIII, Issue 4, 5 January 1907, Page 9

ARCTIC EXPLORATION. COMMANDER PEARY'S EXPEDITION.

An outline account of Commander PeaTy"s North Pole expedition on board the Roosevelt is published in the Westmineter Gazette of 22nd November. It sets forth th.it leaving Etah on 16th August, 1905, the Roooevelt pressed her way north. Sho scon encountered ice, which made x)ro"rcs-sx )ro " rcs - s dangerous and difficult. On sth September Cape Sheridan was Teached. The ice then enclosed and held the ship, and she was made fact there for some days. The ice jammed, damaging the rudder and piopeller, and unmercifully squeezing the vessel, which on the 16th was lifted till her propeller showed. The vessel was not floated again till the following summer, and this position perforce became headquarteTi). During October thero was a rapid succession of deaths among the dogs. It was traced to poiboning from cured whale meat, several tons of which had accordingly to bo thrown away. "I then," says Commander Peaiy, "faced the proposition of my dogs and the Esquimaux subsisting upon the country untiL the 6pring seeding Mason, after which tho dog* and the Esquimaux lived in snow houses, with Marvin and Henson, in the Lake Hazon Basin and along the slopes of the United States ranges. They lived on musk oxen, reindeer, hare, salmon, and trout." On 21st February Peary started on a eledge trip in the direction of the Pole, several parties having preceded him by a couple of days. Three marches brought them to Cape Hecla, where the entire outfit assembled. The encampment comprised Bartlett, Wolf, Marvin, H.enson, Clarke, Ryan, P-eary, 21 Esquimaux, and 120 dogs. The plan concerted was to proceed in one main and five ot six division parties, which Peary hoped would be able to advance supplfre and maintain communications with the selected base, to the northward of Point Moss, and 20 miles to the west. Cape Hecla was determined upon as tho point of departure from the land. Open leads and rough ic3 rendered their progress slow, and a considerable poition of the trail had to be cut with pickaxes. The fast glimpse of the sun wa3 obtained on 6th March, 80 miles from the land. The character of the going was then greatly improved, but leads were more frequent aud wider. "At latitude 84.38," 6aid Commander Peary, '-I came up with Bartlett, Henson, and Clarke, with their parties stall- | cd by a broad lead \ extending east and west as far as it could bo seen. After a delay of six days we crossed on young j jke, which bent ,b&neath our weight. Bartlett and Clarke were sent/back for supplies. Peary established a cache, in which instruments were placed for the supporting parties. Peary, preceded by Hansen, then continued his journey, but three days later it began to blow heavily. The gale lasted six days, during which Peary and Hanson wore driven seventy miles eastward by the drifting of a great floe on which they were had encamped. Two of the Esquimaux were then sent back for news. They returned in seventy-four hours and reported that tho ice was wide open to the south. Nothing had been seen of the supporting parties. "It was evident," continued Commander Peary, "that 1 could no longer count in the slightest degree upon the supporting parties, and that whatever was to be done must bo done by a dash at Storm Camp, as our stopping-place was called. Everything was abandoned that was not absolutely necessary, and wo bent every energy upon establishing a record. In places the snow had been hammered into areas of rough ice, so these 'gave little trouble, and wo had no occasion to resort to scow-shoos or pickaxes. The party consisted of seven men and six teams, with less than half loads each. As we advanced tho character of the ice improved, the fioes becoming much larger and rafters more infrequent, but tho cracks and narrow leads increased, and nearly all the active cracks were at right angles with our course, the ice on the northern side moving more rapidly eastwards than on tho southern." By forced marches Peary, on April 21, reached 87.06 deg. "I thanked God," he says, "with as good grace as possible for what we had been able to accomplish, though it was but an empty bauble compared with the splendid jewel for which I was straining my life. But looking at my remaining dogs <md the nearly empty sledges, and bearing in mind the moving ice and the nearly unknown quantity of a big lead be tween us and the nearest land, I felt that I had cut the margin as narrow as could reasonably bo expected. My flags wero put out from the summit ot the highest pinnae) a near us, and a hundrod feet or so beyond this 'I left a bottle containing a brief record and a piece of the flag I had carried around the northern end of Greenland six years beforo. Then wo started to return to our last igloo (lodge), making no camp here." After harking back to latitude 84, a big lead was encountered, over which no crossing could be found. The party camped on a big floe, which drifted steadily eastward. Here the dogs were driven away, and the sledges broken up to cook the dog meat, which the party ate. On the fifth day the two Esquimaux reported young ice a few miles distant, which the party eventually crossed on snow-shoes. "This was our chance or never," writes Peary. "Tho thin film crusting the black water bent and yielded beneath us, sending undulations in every direction. I don't care for another similar experience. During the remainder of this march and the next week we cut a way slowly through cuch shattered ice as I hope never to see again. ' On May 1.2 the little party dragged themselves into the ice at the foot of the Greenland coast at Capo Neumaycr, where they found four hares. "No one," says Peary, "can imagine how delicious they wore." The remainder of the march back to the "Roosevelt" was accomplished without any extraordinary incident, except that three of the men could not stand tho pace, and dropped out. Later, Peary sent back, and brought in the stragglors. On July 30 he returned to the "RooEevelt," which next day steamed for Thank God Harbour. At Etah the ship was beached for four days for repairs. When more open water was reached storm after storm was encountered, and the Roosevelt was beaten back and forth for days.

This is how the Saturday Review deals with the obstreporous lady suffragists :— Who would think that ladies with such tender and charming names could be so unkind? Doria, Theresa, Adcla, Irene — Shelley with all his wild ideas would not have wished his Ireno to go to such lengths — hero are only a few of the names. The worst part of their behaviour was their treatment of the police. Apparently, they suppose that you cannot hurt a policeman's feelings or his person. A policeman is a thing to bo assaulted and abused. We wish these gentle ladies would take a leaf out of the book of a real martyr of their aex. When Marie Antoinette trod on the foot of the man who was about to take her life, she turned and begged his pardon. It might not be quite so pleasing as it is at present to refuse the franchise to these ladies if they would suffer and be sweet. Ringing other people's bells, saucing tho bench, and scratching the police is not the way to gain your political riaht.