ARCTIC EXPLORERS' ESCAPE.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XXXIV, Issue 10963, 4 May 1907, Page 2 (Supplement)

ARCTIC EXPLORERS' ESCAPE.

COMMANDER PEARY DESCRIBES A PERILOUS ICE JOURNEY.

A few minutes m time # and a few feet of ice space were the narrow margin by wliich Commander Robert E. Peary and some ot- his men escaped a watery grave m the concluding stages of the Peary Arctic Club's 1905-6 expedition "nearest the North Pole."

With Eskimos and dogs the commander was making a painful way over ice, and m the face* of wind and show "that cut like red-hot needles."

After an exhausting march they came to "the ibig lead"— a broad, black band of water stretching east and west as far. as ey© could reach.. On the distant southern side of it lay the only way to tlieir ship Roosevelt, home, and life itself. For five days' the party travelled eastward on floating ice searching for a cross, injg. Tbe dogs dwindled away and sledges were broken up for firewood to cook them; On the fifth day two Eskimos reported a patch of young ice extending clear across^thb lead. What followed is described by Commander Peary m the March ' Harper's Monthly. "Eacli man tied; on his snow-shoes with the utmost care; and then m widely extended skirmish-line and m absolute silence we begin tlie crossing. Each of us was b_6y' with his thoughts and intent upon hist snow-shoes, which could not be lifted from the ice and the slightest unsteadiness or stumble' would have '.meant his -finish.'" 'T; : _ '• T -" T

"The thin fito crusting the black water benfc : and yielded beneath "uST at every step, sending widening undulations from every man. . I do riot care for a similar experience. At la&t those interminable miles came to an end, and Wre - stepped upon the firrri. ice of the southern side.- --.* . ; . As we turned our backs to trie lead a line of black water cut the f i ail bridge upon vrlveh we had cro_s€d. ,, ' Tneir troubles, however, were not over. From the lead southward, says the' , ex plorer, . "there stretched such a hell of .shattered ice as 1 1 hope .never to see again. . . . We hewed but way through. V . • ice m size from a paving -stone to. the dome of tlie Capitol. On May 12th the party - reached --.- the Greenland coast, at, Cape Neumeyc-r; and ,m due course rejoined tlie Roosevelt. Another expedition, profitirig by his experience,^ says Commander Peary, will be able to reach the Pole. Only 174 miles now remain to <be conquered.' ;