NORTH POLE DAY

Evening Post, Volume CIII, Issue 134, 9 June 1922, Page 5

NORTH POLE DAY

A CELEBRATION

MEMORIAL IN HONOUR OF PEARY

To-day (said the Springfield Republican of 6th April) a memorial to Robert Peary of the North Pole is being unveiled. It was 13 years ago the 6th of this month —Thursday—that Admiral Peary, after years of exploring, found the North Pole. President Harding, Secretary of Navy Denby, many Government officials, and well-known scientists and explorers were present at the unveiling in Arlington national cemetery to do honour to the memory of America's gallant explorer. The memorial was unveiled by Mrs. Marie Peary Stanford, daughter of the late Admiral Peary and well known to the world in her childhood as the "Snow baby." The monument itself is unique. A white granite spheroid, shaped like the earth, rests on a massive base. On the base ie carved the Latin motto "Inveniam viam aut faciam" (I will find a way or make one), which was the explorer's favourite motto. The symbolic design for the monument was conceived by the Admiral during his last illness. The memorial is near the epot where America's unknown soldier is buried. THE FIBST THREE HUNDRED YEARS. Though the struggle for the Pole began nearly 300 years ago, costing many lives and immense treasure, it took this dauntless American explorer to achieve the final goal. It was during Henry VIII.'s reign that the English explorer Davis first set out for China by way of the North Pole. Scores of hardy navigators, British, French, Dutch, German, Scandinavian, and Russian, followed Davis, all seeking to hew across the Pole the much-coveted short route to China and the Indies. The rivalry was keen and costly in lives, ships, and treasure, 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 record), Great Britain's flag was always waving nearest the top of the globe. But all efforts to reach the Polo had failed, notwithstanding the •unlimited sacrifice of gold and energy and blood which had been poured out without stint for nearly, four centuries, GREENLAND'S lOY MOUNTAINS. A brief summer excursion to Greenland 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. He realised at once that the goal which had eluded co many hundreds of dauntless men could be won only by a new method of attack. The "first Arctic problem with which Peary grappled was considered at that time in importance second only to the conquest of the Pole; namely, to determine 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 accident which sorely taxed his patience as well as his body, and which ia 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 Greenland shore, a cake of ice became wedged in the Tudder, causing the wheel to reverse. One of the spokes. jabbed Peary's leg against the casement, making it impossible, lo 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 resume his exploration the following year. But Peary insisted on being landed as originally planned at M'Cormick 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 ah1, so speedily restored his strength that at the ensuing Christmas festivities which were arranged for the Eskimos, he outraced on snowshoes all the natives and his own men. / CROSSING THE ICE CAP AT SO BELOW. '■£, In the following May, with one companion, Astrup, he ascended to the summit of the great ice cap, which covers the interior of Greenland, 5000 to 8000 feet in elevation, and pushed northward for 500 miles over a region where the foot of man had never trod before, in temperatures ranging from 10 degrees to 50 degrees below zero. Imagine his surprise on descending from the tableland to enter a little valley Tadiant with gorgeous flowers, and alive with murmuring bees, where musk oxen were lazily browsing. This sledding journey, which he duplicated by another equally remarkable crossing of the ice cap three years later, defined the northern extension of Greenland, and conclusively ■ proved that it is an island instead of a continent extending to the Pole. In boldness of conception, and brilliancy of results, these two crossings of Greenland are unsurpassed in Arctic history. The magnitude of Peary's feat is better appreciated when it is recalled that "Nansen's historic crossing of the island was below the Arctic circle, 1000 miles south of Peary's latitude, where Greenland is some 250 miles wide. HEADING FOR THE POLE. Peary now turned his attention to the Pole, which lay 396 geographical miles farther north than any man had penetrated on the Western Hemisphere. To get there by the American route he must break a virgin trail every mile north from Greely's 83 degrees 27 minutes. No'ono had pioneered so great a distance northward. Markham and others had attained enduring fame by advancing the flag considerably less than 100 miles. Parry had pioneered 150 miles, and Nansen 128 from his ship. His experiences in Greenland had convinced Peary, if possible more firmly than before, that the only way of surmounting this last and most formidable barrier was to adopt the manner of life, the food, the snowhouses, and the clothing of the Eskimos,' who by centuries of experience had learned the most; effcclivo method of combating the rigors of arctic weather; to utilise the game of the northland, tho Arctic reindeer, musk ox, etc., which his exploration had proved comparatively abundant, thus with fresh meat keeping his men fit and good-tempered through the da pressing winter night, and lastly to train the Eskimo to become his sledging 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 baso approximately 700 miles from tho Pole, or 200 miles south of the headquarters of Nares, too great a distance from the Pole to be overcome in one short Beason. During this trying period, by sledging feats which in distance and physical obstacles overcome exceeded the extraordinary records made in Greenland, he explored and mapped hundreds of miles of coast line of Greenland and of the islands west and north of Greenland. On the next attempt, Peary insured

reaching the Polar ocean by designing i and constructing the Koosevelt, 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 87 degrees, six minutes, a new world's record. Winds of unusual fury, by opening big .leads, robbed him of the Pole and nearly of his life. THE HARD-WON POLE. The last Peary expedition, 1908-190°, 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 prearranged can be given than the fact that, though Peary had taken hundreds of men north with him on his various expeditions, he had brought them all back, and in good health, with the exception*of two, who lost their lives in accident for which the leader was in no way responsible. What a contrast this record is to tho long list of fatalities from disease, shipwreck, and starvation. It has been well said that the glory of Peary's achievement belongs to the world and is shared by all mankind. But we, his fellow-countrymen, who have known how he struggled against discouragement and scoffing and how he persevered under financial burdens that would have crushed less stalwart shoulders, specially rejoice that he "made good at last," and that an American became the peffr of Hudson, Magellan, and Columbus.