LIEUTENANT PEARY AND THE NORTH POLE.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 11046, 25 February 1898, Page 7

LIEUTENANT PEARY AND THE NORTH POLE.

HIS PLANS FOR THE FUTURE.. Lieutenant Peary, the American Arctic explorer; with his wife, arrived recently in London for the first time, arid was, of course, interviewed. In the bourse of his remaiks he said:— ...,,.. ■ -

"Naturally I feel- confidence in my own plan of accomplishing this. I believe it quite possible to reach the Pole. It is simply a matter of time, experience; and the necessary funds. I have been so busy with my own work that I have not bean able to pay much attention to the work of others. Nansen has done magnificent work, and.my opinion is that, the resultb of hig and Jackson's expedition, in showing that there is no land in the Siberian segment of the Arctic region, suggest that the rotite on the other side, the one I intend to follow next year, is $be only practicable. way of getting to the Pols. I do not say this in any spirit of criticism—it is simply my opinion on the matter. ■

" There has been a report in the States that Sverdrup intends next year to go by ..that route and in pursuit of my object; but this would be ah unprecedented occurrence, and I cannot believe the Story to be anything more than a ramour. With regard to Andree, I never thought he had one chance in a thousand of succßßsfally carrying oat his plan.

"In view.of the experiences of others, and of improved methods of transportation, and of obtaining proper compressed food, I believe the .prospects of an; explorer successfully reaching the Polaare'better to-day than they ever hate been before. >

"Briefly, I intend going north with'pro-' visions for four or five years in the Same region where I have worked for six years, pushing my ship/as far as pbssible on the north-west coast 'of Greenland, and landing there with my Eskimos. Then I shall cross the ssa ice with dogs and sledges in a bee line forl the Pole, and having reached that point, shall come straight :back. I;- : -

"All details1 are not yet do'tnpleted, but my present plans are as ■follows:— I shall start from New York at the end of July next in a ship which I have yet to purchase. I shall take with me a surgeon-and one European. I hare not yet decided on.my companions, 'but there will only be three of us. I shall take the uaual supply of Arctic stores, sufficient fat five years, although I do not anticipate taking so ldng to accomplish my object. Lsaving New York, I shall proceed to Sydney, Cape.Breton. There I shall coal, and go north through Davis Strait, Baffin's Bay, Smith's Sound, and Robeson Channel to the farthest point I can reach by open water on the north-west shore of Greenland. I shall probably come to the place, where I must leave my ship some time in September. On my voyage north I shall call at Whale Island, embark my Eskimos, who live in the immediate neighbourhood, and whom I selected this summer. They are not only picked men, but personal friends, as I know overy individual mebaber of the tribe. Tbey will be ready when I call for them. Thejt will probably cbmprise eight couples, and will bring with them their arms, tents, and canoes, go that they will be a complete Arctic settlement. The ship will then return to New York, where she should arrive the same autumn. It will go. out the following year, and continue to do so until my work is finished.. After landing .Iahull push along the coast:with.sledges, dogs;' and the whole of my Eskimos, and establish stations at regular intervals until the limit of land ii reached. Therie I shall start with specially light loads, with toy men and dogs,' to cross the, intervening district'to the Pole. I cannot tell how far land extends. I hope to effect a landing from the ship in September, and. to be ready to start aorth the following spring. ; '

" After leaving land the trip to the Pole will be one on which we cannot construct stations or caches-; therefore it will hare to be made with the smallest amount of impedimenta and accomplished with all expedition; yet under most f&rourable circumstances I hope to do it in three months, tj.

■ " There may be open channels, or leads, as whalers c*il them. These we shall have to ferry across, but in that latitude I do not expect So find open water to any extent. JVaukly, I do not believe in she talk of an open Polar sea. It is all nonsense. There are portions of open water of limited exteut, bub these are in comparatively low Arctic latitudes. When the Pole is reached I shall return to the coast with all speed, and, if the ship is waiting, embark at once for home. If for any reason she fails us, I shall return overland across the northern part of Greenland to : Oape York. As I have already said, although I take five years' provisions, I hops to successfully achibve my object before that time."

Lieutenant Peary had a small Bection of the enormous meteorite he brought home from the Arctic regions with him. It has t,he look o£ highly polished steel, and has apparently finely engraved on the surface the beautiful figures which characterise''meteoric iron. In the composite mass is. 92 percent: of iron and 8 per cent, nickel. With regard to this meteorite Lieutenant Peary said : " It has special interest for England, because the first knowledge of the possession of meteoric iron by the Eskimos of. the Cape York region was attained by Sir John Ross in 1818, when he discovered the existence of the people themselves. He found that they had iron knivos and harpoon heads, which were said to nave been, obtained from iron mountains in Melville Bay. Efforts were made by every expedition to locate these, but I was the first white man to see them. In the spring of 1894 I found there' were three groat masses o£ meteoric iron, one weighing 200,0001b (100 tons), one 60001b, and a third 10001b. They bad baeri uswd for generations as a source of iron supply for/the natives. In 1895 I brought two smaller ones back to America, and in 1896 I attempted to bring back the. big one, but I .had to retreat in order to save my ship. Last summer, however, I succeeded in getting it safely to America. It is by far the largest meteorite in the world, measuring, as it does 12ft by Bft by 6ft. According to Eskimo legend, these three masses were originally an Eskimo woinac, her dog, aad tent, who had been hurled from Heaven for some impropriety and fell in that region." The Hues ou them cross each other at angles, forming a beautiful mosaic^ pattern, which may be called the celestial trade mark of meteoric iron