THE PEARY EXPEDITION

Evening Post, Volume LXXVIII, Issue 58, 6 September 1909, Page 7

THE PEARY EXPEDITION

Commander Peary, whose claim Dr. Cook is by some critics held to have jumped, sailed from Sydney, Cape Breton, on 17th July last year, in the Roosevelt, with Iho object of making another attempt to r<# n the North Pole. He proposed to take up winter quarters north of Grant Land, where he wintered in 1905-6, and to be away two years. The attempt to reach the Polt was not to be made until aflei the winter rnlrftice on 21st February. This virtually ends fctorms and bad weather and makes it possible to travel with comparative convenience. Commander Peary's intention was to attempt his dash over the floes with his own pei-sorfal party of four assisted by as many of the .Newfoundland crew as may wish to volunteer t'oi the work, and he also took north with him from Etah twenty-five Eskimos and two hundred and fifty dogs. He proposed to advance northward from Cape Columbia, with a numerous party, who would feed from one sleigh until it was exhausted and then the driver would drop back to land. This process would be repeated until only Peary and one or two companions are left. Meanwhile, those who had gone back would reload their sleighs and go north again to meet those returning. So far as possible, a trail would be laid across the floe towards the Pole, and this would . be followed by the parties both going ' and returning. The normal period for an expedition of this character is about ninety days, sixty going and thirty re.turning, but everything depends upon the condition of the ice a.s to what the result will be. When, on the evening of 18th August, the Roosevelt started for the Polar Ocean by what is known as the North WaterSmith Sound, Kennedy Channel, and Robeson Strait (a watercourse from ten to twenty miles wide, through which some of the ice annually formed in the Polar basin is shot out by way of Baffin's Bay to the Atlantic), the ice and weather conditions were regarded by Commander Peary as very favourable, and he was hopeful of reaching a long distance hf the steamer, as every mile gained in this fashion would lessen the ice journey. From this place, where he would go into winter quarters, he would cross the snow-clad land to Cape Columbia, the northernmost' point of Ellesmereland, whence he would make his dash across the floes towards the Pole. Before Dr. Cook's achievement, Commander Peary was credited with the honours of having approached nearer the North Pole than any other explorer. On 21st April, 1905, he reached 87 deg 6min North, .thus being within 174 miles of the apex of the earth.