COMMANDER PEARY IN LONDON.

Oamaru Mail, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 10488, 22 June 1910, Page 1

COMMANDER PEARY IN LONDON.

(Daily Mail Correspondent.) Plymouth. It is a great pleasure to me to revisit England again after seven years and to meet my friends here, and it is a double pleasure to meet them now with the work in which they and I have been interested for so long—done. ■'Done.'' There was a world of meaning, in the emphatic monosyllable with 'which Commander Peary ended this little message to his friends in England, seated in the cabin of the tender which was taking him from the iCronprinzessin Cecilie to Plymouth dockside. You may read into it all the twenty-three years of ceaseless endeavor, all the pain of which he says so little, all the striving, all the glory, and all the certainty of a great achievement.

The work has been done. There is no question about that in the mind of Peary or of his Newfoundland companion Captain Bartlett, who has come to England, with him> They are certain that the top of the world has been reached, and they bring proofs which will satisfy the Royal Geographical Society, which honors "the man who got there" on Wednesday night. Commander Peary has not come alcne. He brings his charming wife, his fair-haired little son Robert; aged six, his "snow-baby" Marie Ahnighito, now a handsome girl of sixteen, and Captain Bartlett, the most loyal lieutenant that ever an Arctic leader had, the man who willingly turned back within eleven days of the Pole "because it was part of the plan." The- man who did get to the North Pole will lie fifty-four this month. He lias' the weather-beaten look of the hard-worked Western farmer, the long, reddish moustache turning grey above the lips, seared face and steel-grey eyes. His most striking feature is a broad, high, and very noble forehead, hiding a brain full of energy, tenacity, courage, and imagination. He has few words and those much to the point. "Will von'go to the Pole again ?" I asked. ' " "

"No," .said Commander Peary, speaking slowly and in monosyllables, "I've no need to go. I've done all I set out to do." "Nevertheless you have not lost your love for the Arctic r'' A man never loses that," said Peary. "Once go, and you must go again. T .suppose I shall go North again, but. only in the summer time for a trip. There is no reason why a man should not go to Grant Land as well as to Spitzbergcn if he wants good sport. Otherwise there is notmuch left to be done except to establish stations and send out surveying narties." "How did you make certain that you were at the North Pole?" "By observations such as every navigator makes when he wants to ascertain his position—that is to say, by observing the sun with a sextant, with the aid of an artificial horizon, and establishing the position by chronometer time," said the explorer. "There are certain conditions that make this work more difficult up there," he added. "There is the cold, the fact that the observer is tired, that his eyes are hurt by the strain of constant sunlight and the excessive refraction. I made observations in the neighborhood of the Pole during a period of thirty hours." "Are you satisfied with .the accuracy of your observations';'"

"No man can make an absolute single observation with any instrument made. I rely on the result of many observations. The accuracy of observations depends upon the refinement of the instrument with which they are made, the capacity of the man who makes them, and their number." Commander Peary (irmly believes that Captain Scott will reach the South Pole.

"1 reckon," lie said, "the South Pole is a gift to Scott. He has got his plans complete; the route has been surveyed. There is no reason why he should not go right through to the Pole, unless his expedition meets with some unforeseen catastrophe such as the loss of his ship, or is struck by disease. "I am not acquainted personally with Antarctic work, but one great point in favor of it is the fact that the ••xpedition is advancing over a thick surface, -and whatever distance you make you have got. Whereas in the Arctic the ice breaks up every year and your depots may move. ' The antithesis is curious—at the North Pole you have two miles of sea under you, at the South Pole you are raised probably two miles above the surface, on an ice-cap. "I hope Scott will get there, but I'm s'orry our own expedition will not be there to meet him. The National Geographic Society has not been able to get the money". That is a great pity, because a series of observations taken at the same time on opposite sides would have been of great value. "What was the first question everyone asked me when I got back ? 'How did you stand the cold?' As a matter of fact I stood the cold very well; so can any man if he clothes well and feeds well."

"You were not vegetarians?" ',' No." said Commander Peary. "We ate all" the. flesh we could get; and very often we ate more than would seem decent: but we had to do it, and we were glad to do it. When we got fresh meat we just filled ourselves full of it."