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THE NORTH POLE
COPYRIGHT, 1910, BY FREDERICK A. STOKES COMPANY
[Illustration: THE FIVE FLAGS AT THE POLE
LEFT TO RIGHT
1. Navy League--Ooqueah
2. D. K. E. Fraternity--Ootah
3. Polar Flag Carried 15 Years--Henson
4. D. A. R. Peace Flag--Egingwah
5. Red Cross Flag--Seegloo]
THE NORTH POLE
ITS DISCOVERY IN 1909 UNDER THE
AUSPICES OF THE PEARY
ARCTIC CLUB
BY
ROBERT E. PEARY
WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY
THEODORE ROOSEVELT
AND A FOREWORD BY
GILBERT H. GROSVENOR
DIRECTOR AND EDITOR, NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC SOCIETY
[Illustration]
GREENWOOD PRESS, PUBLISHERS
NEW YORK
Originally published in 1910 by Frederick A. Stokes Co.
First Greenwood Reprinting, 1968
Library of Congress Catalogue Card Number: 68-55210
PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
TO
MY WIFE
INTRODUCTION
SOME _years ago I met at a dinner in Washington the famous Norwegian
arctic explorer, Nansen, himself one of the heroes of polar adventure;
and he remarked to me, "Peary is your best man; in fact I think he is on
the whole the best of the men now trying to reach the Pole, and there is
a good chance that he will be the one to succeed." I cannot give the
exact words; but they were to the above effect; and they made a strong
impression on me. I thought of them when in the summer of 1908 I, as
President of the United States, went aboard Peary's ship to bid him
Godspeed on the eve of what proved to be his final effort to reach the
Pole. A year later, when I was camped on the northern foothills of Mt.
Kenia, directly under the equator, I received by a native runner the
news that he had succeeded, and that thanks to him the discovery of the
North Pole was to go on the honor roll of those feats in which we take a
peculiar pride because they have been performed by our fellow
countrymen.
Probably few outsiders realize the well-nigh incredible toil and
hardship entailed in such an achievement as Peary's; and fewer still
understand how many years of careful training and preparation there must
be before the feat can be even attempted with any chance of success. A
"dash for the pole" can be successful only if there have been many
preliminary years of painstaking, patient toil. Great physical hardihood
and endurance, an iron will and unflinching courage, the power of
command, the thirst for adventure, and a keen and farsighted
intelligence--all these must go to the make-up of the successful arctic
explorer; and these, and more than these, have gone to the make-up of
the chief of successful arctic explorers, of the man who succeeded where
hitherto even the best and the bravest had failed.
Commander Peary has made all dwellers in the civilized world his
debtors; but, above all, we, his fellow Americans, are his debtors. He
has performed one of the great feats of our time; he has won high honor
for himself and for his country; and we welcome his own story of the
triumph which he won in the immense solitudes of the wintry North._
THEODORE ROOSEVELT.
THE WHITE NILE, _March_ 12, 1910.
COPYRIGHT, 1910, BY FREDERICK A. STOKES COMPANY
[Illustration: PORTRAIT OF ROBERT E. PEARY, IN HIS ACTUAL NORTH POLE
COSTUME]
CONTENTS
CHAPTER PAGE
INTRODUCTION vii
FOREWORD xv
I THE PLAN 1
II PREPARATIONS 11
III THE START 25
IV UP TO CAPE YORK 34
V WELCOME FROM THE ESKIMOS 42
VI AN ARCTIC OASIS 53
VII ODD CUSTOMS OF AN ODD PEOPLE 63
VIII GETTING RECRUITS 72
IX A WALRUS HUNT 79
X KNOCKING AT THE GATEWAY TO THE POLE 88
XI CLOSE QUARTERS WITH THE ICE 97
XII THE ICE FIGHT GOES ON 106
XIII CAPE SHERIDAN AT LAST 117
XIV IN WINTER QUARTERS 126
XV THE AUTUMN WORK 134
XVI THE BIGGEST GAME IN THE ARCTIC 143
XVII MUSK-OXEN AT LAST 151
XVIII THE LONG NIGHT 162
XIX THE _Roosevelt's_ NARROW ESCAPE 172
XX CHRISTMAS ON THE _Roosevelt_ 182
XXI ARCTIC ICE SLEDGING AS IT REALLY IS 193
XXII ESSENTIALS THAT BROUGHT SUCCESS 201
XXIII OFF ACROSS THE FROZEN SEA 213
XXIV THE FIRST OPEN WATER 221
XXV SOME OF MY ESKIMOS LOSE THEIR NERVE 230
XXVI BORUP'S FARTHEST NORTH 240
XXVII GOOD-BY TO MARVIN 248
XXVIII WE BREAK ALL RECORDS 255
XXIX BARTLETT REACHES 87° 47´ 264
XXX THE FINAL SPURT BEGUN 272
XXXI ONLY ONE DAY FROM THE POLE 280
XXXII WE REACH THE POLE 287
XXXIII GOOD-BY TO THE POLE 302
XXXIV BACK TO LAND AGAIN 314
XXXV LAST DAYS AT CAPE SHERIDAN 325
APPENDIX I 337
APPENDIX II 350
APPENDIX III 363
ILLUSTRATIONS
FULL-PAGE PLATES REPRODUCING PHOTOGRAPHIC ENLARGEMENTS COLORED BY HAND
THE FIVE FLAGS AT THE POLE _Frontispiece._
Facing
Page
PORTRAIT OF ROBERT E. PEARY IN HIS ACTUAL NORTH POLE COSTUME viii
STELLAR PROJECTION, SHOWING THE RELATION OF THE POLAR SEA TO THE
VARIOUS CONTINENTS AND THE ROUTE OF THE EXPEDITION xxxii
ESKIMO DOGS OF THE EXPEDITION (246 IN ALL) ON SMALL ISLAND.
ETAH FJORD 74
CAPTAIN BARTLETT AND HIS PARTY (A TYPICAL UNIT DIVISION OF THE
EXPEDITION) 140
ILLUMINATION OF THE _Roosevelt_ IN WINTER QUARTERS ON A MOONLIGHT
NIGHT 162
A TYPICAL EXAMPLE OF THE DIFFICULTIES OF WORKING SLEDGES OVER A
PRESSURE RIDGE 240
CROSSING A LEAD ON AN ICE CAKE AS A FERRY-BOAT 306
BLACK AND WHITE ILLUSTRATIONS FROM PHOTOGRAPHS
Facing
Page
GEORGE A. WARDWELL, CHIEF ENGINEER 16
BANKS SCOTT, SECOND ENGINEER 16
ROBERT A. BARTLETT, MASTER 16
THOMAS GUSHUE, MATE 16
CHARLES PERCY, STEWARD 16
PROFESSOR ROSS G. MARVIN, ASSISTANT 17
GEORGE BORUP, ASSISTANT 17
DONALD B. MACMILLAN, ASSISTANT 17
DR. J. W. GOODSELL, SURGEON 17
SNOWY OWL, CAPE SHERIDAN 36
BRANT GOOSE 37
SABINE'S GULL 37
RED-THROATED DIVER, MALE AND FEMALE 37
KING EIDER, DRAKE 37
ESKIMOS COMING OFF TO THE _Roosevelt_ IN KAYAKS 42
THE MIDNIGHT SUN AS SEEN IN THE WHALE SOUND REGION 42
ESKIMO IN KAYAK 43
THE ICE-CLIFFS OF HUBBARD GLACIER 52
PEARY DISTRIBUTING UTENSILS TO WIVES OF HIS HUNTERS AT ETAH 53
DECK SCENE ON THE _Roosevelt_ 53
ESKIMO MOTHER AND CHILD 60
ESKIMO CHILDREN 61
KUDLAH, ALIAS "MISFORTUNE," WITH PUPPIES 61
KING ESKIMO DOG 70
THE DOG MARKET AT CAPE YORK 71
THE WHALE-BOAT RETURNING TO THE SHIP FROM THE WALRUS HUNT 71
THE CAPE JESUP GRENADIERS 71
HOISTING A WALRUS TO THE DECK OF THE _Roosevelt_ 86
A NARWHAL KILLED OFF CAPE UNION, JULY, 1909. THE MOST NORTHERLY
SPECIMEN EVER CAPTURED 87
CAPTAIN BARTLETT IN THE CROW'S NEST 104
TABULAR ICEBERG AND FLOE-ICE 105
THE _Roosevelt_ DRYING OUT HER SAILS AT CAPE SHERIDAN,
SEPTEMBER, 1908 122
THE _Roosevelt_ ON SEPTEMBER 12, 1908, MARIE AHNIGHITO
PEARY'S BIRTHDAY 123
"PEARY" SLEDGES ON BOARD THE _Roosevelt_ 123
VIEW BETWEEN THE _Roosevelt_ AND CAPE COLUMBIA 136
ESKIMO TYPE OF SLEDGE USED ON JOURNEY 137
"PEARY" TYPE OF SLEDGE 137
POLAR BEAR, ARRANGED BY "FROZEN TAXIDERMY" AND PHOTOGRAPHED BY
FLASHLIGHT 144
FAMILY GROUP OF PEARY CARIBOU (_Rangifer Pearyi_), ARRANGED
BY "FROZEN TAXIDERMY" AND PHOTOGRAPHED BY FLASHLIGHT 145
HEAD OF BULL MUSK-OX KILLED ON PARRY PENINSULA 152
HERD OF MUSK-OXEN ROUNDED UP 153
WEESHARKOOPSI AND MUSK-OX CALF 156
BEAR KILLED IN CLEMENTS MARKHAM INLET 156
MUSK-OX HEADS IN THE RIGGING OF THE _Roosevelt_ 157
CARIBOU HEADS IN THE RIGGING OF THE _Roosevelt_ 157
CRANE CITY, CAPE COLUMBIA, AT THE TIME OF DEPARTURE
MARCH 1, 1909 192
FACE OF THE LAND ICE, "GLACIAL FRINGE," OFF CAPE COLUMBIA 193
PINNACLE NEAR THE SHORE 193
TYPICAL TRAIL IN SOFT SNOW (LOOKING BACKWARD) 208
TYPICAL VIEW OF THE ICE OF THE ARCTIC OCEAN NORTH OF GRANT LAND 209
TYPICAL CAMP ON THE ICE 209
WORKING THROUGH AN EXPANSE OF ROUGH ICE 216
PASSING THROUGH A DEFILE IN ROUGH ICE 217
APPROACHING A LEAD THROUGH ROUGH ICE 224
STOPPED BY OPEN WATER 225
ATHLETIC SPORTS AT THE LEAD CAMP 232
PICKAXING A ROAD THROUGH ZONE OF ROUGH ICE 232
A CHARACTERISTIC VIEW OF THE EXPEDITION ON THE MARCH IN FINE
WEATHER 233
REPAIRING SLEDGES IN CAMP 248
MARVIN TAKING AN OBSERVATION IN A SNOW SHELTER 249
CROSSING A LARGE LAKE OF YOUNG ICE, NORTH OF 87° 264
CAMP AT 85° 48´ NORTH, MARCH 22, 1909 265
A MOMENTARY HALT IN THE LEE OF A BIG HUMMOCK NORTH OF 88° 265
BARTLETT AND HIS PARTY READY TO START BACK FROM 87° 47´ NORTH,
APRIL 1, 1909 270
CUTTING BLOCKS OF SNOW FOR IGLOOS AT NEXT TO LAST CAMP,
89° 25´ NORTH 271
THE HALT FOR LUNCH IN LAST FORCED MARCH, 89° 25´ TO 89° 57´,
SHOWING ALCOHOL STOVES IN SNOW SHELTER 284
CAMP MORRIS K. JESUP, 89° 57´, APRIL 6 AND 7, 1909 285
THE RECONNOITERING PARTY AT THE POLE 288
THE DOUBLE TEAM OF DOGS USED WITH THE RECONNOITERING SLEDGE
AT THE POLE, SHOWING THEIR ALERTNESS AND GOOD CONDITION 289
PEARY WITH CHRONOMETER, SEXTANT, AND ARTIFICIAL HORIZON AT
THE POLE 290
PEARY TAKING AN OBSERVATION AT THE POLE, WITH ARTIFICIAL
HORIZON, IN A SNOW SHELTER 290
PEARY'S IGLOO AT CAMP MORRIS K. JESUP, APRIL 6, 1909; THE MOST
NORTHERLY HUMAN HABITATION IN THE WORLD 291
MEMBERS OF THE PARTY CHEERING THE STARS AND STRIPES AT THE POLE,
APRIL 7, 1909 294
RETURNING TO CAMP WITH THE FLAGS, APRIL 7, 1909 294
THE FOUR NORTH POLE ESKIMOS 295
EGINGWAH SEARCHING THE HORIZON FOR LAND 298
PEARY SEARCHING THE HORIZON FOR LAND 298
LOOKING TOWARD CAPE CHELYUSKIN 299
LOOKING TOWARD SPITZBERGEN 299
LOOKING TOWARD CAPE COLUMBIA 299
LOOKING TOWARD BERING STRAIT 299
ATTEMPTED SOUNDING, APRIL 7, 1909 302
ACTUAL SOUNDING, FIVE MILES SOUTH OF THE POLE, APRIL 7, 1909,
1500 FATHOMS (9000 ft.) NO BOTTOM 303
SWINGING AN ICE CAKE ACROSS A LEAD TO FORM AN IMPROMPTU BRIDGE 308
PASSING OVER THE BRIDGE 309
SOUNDING 312
BREAKING CAMP. PUSHING THE SLEDGES UP TO THE TIRED DOGS 312
LAST CAMP ON THE ICE ON THE RETURN 313
BACK ON THE "GLACIAL FRINGE" 313
APPROACHING THE PEAKS OF CAPE COLUMBIA OVER THE SURFACE OF THE
"GLACIAL FRINGE" 318
CRANE CITY AT CAPE COLUMBIA, ON THE RETURN 318
EGINGWAH BEFORE STARTING ON THE SLEDGE TRIP 319
EGINGWAH AFTER THE RETURN FROM THE TRIP 319
OOTAH BEFORE STARTING ON THE SLEDGE TRIP 319
OOTAH AFTER THE RETURN FROM THE SLEDGE TRIP 319
PERMANENT MONUMENT ERECTED AT CAPE COLUMBIA TO MARK POINT OF
DEPARTURE AND RETURN OF NORTH POLE SLEDGE PARTY 324
PEARY CAIRN AT CAPE MORRIS K. JESUP AS PHOTOGRAPHED BY
MACMILLAN AND BORUP 325
MEMORIAL ERECTED TO THE MEMORY OF PROFESSOR ROSS G. MARVIN AT
CAPE SHERIDAN 325
THE SPECIAL GREAT GOLD MEDAL OF THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC SOCIETY
OF WASHINGTON 364
THE SPECIAL GREAT GOLD MEDAL OF THE ROYAL GEOGRAPHICAL SOCIETY
OF LONDON 365
NOTE.--The general plan of illustration is based on an unusually close
adherence to the negatives, as giving more interesting and valuable
results. Many of the most important pictures are from photographs not
retouched in the least, _e.g._, those facing pages 270, 284, 290, etc.
In others the sky-line has been indicated, _e.g._, those facing pages
208, 271, 299 (top), etc.; but change of no other sort has been made
except to remove specks and other similar mechanical defects not widely
extended. The color-plates are, of course, exceptions requiring special
treatment. THE PUBLISHERS
FOREWORD
The struggle for the North Pole began nearly one hundred years before
the landing of the Pilgrim Fathers at Plymouth Rock, being inaugurated
(1527) by that king of many distinctions, Henry VIII of England.
In 1588 John Davis rounded Cape Farewell, the southern end of Greenland,
and followed the coast for eight hundred miles to Sanderson Hope. He
discovered the strait which bears his name, and gained for Great Britain
what was then the record for the farthest north, 72° 12´, a point 1128
miles from the geographical 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 Wm. Barents, the Dutch held the record), Great Britain's
flag was always waving nearest the top of the globe.
The same year that Jamestown was founded, Henry Hudson (1607), also
seeking the route to the Indies, discovered Jan Mayen, circumnavigated
Spitzbergen, and advanced the eye of man to 80° 23´. Most valuable of
all, Hudson brought back accounts of great multitudes of whales and
walruses, with the result that for the succeeding years these new waters
were thronged with fleets of whaling ships from every maritime nation.
The Dutch specially profited by Hudson's discovery. During the 17th and
18th centuries they sent no less than 300 ships and 15,000 men each
summer to these arctic fisheries and established on Spitzbergen, within
the Arctic Circle, one of the most remarkable summer towns the world has
ever known, where stores and warehouses and reducing stations and
cooperages and many kindred industries flourished during the fishing
season. With the approach of winter all buildings were shut up and the
population, numbering several thousand, all returned home.
Hudson's record remained unequaled for 165 years, or until 1773, when J.
C. Phipps surpassed his farthest north by twenty-five miles. To-day the
most interesting fact connected with the Phipps expedition is that
Nelson, the hero of Trafalgar and of the Battle of the Nile, then a lad
of fifteen, was a member of the party. Thus the boldest and strongest
spirits of the most adventurous and hardy profession of those days
sought employment in the contest against the frozen wilderness of the
north.
The first half of the 19th century witnessed many brave ships and
gallant men sent to the arctic regions. While most of these expeditions
were not directed against the Pole so much as sent in an endeavor to
find a route to the Indies round North America--the Northwest
Passage--and around Asia--the Northeast Passage--many of them are
intimately interwoven with the conquest of the Pole, and were a
necessary part of its ultimate discovery. England hurled expedition
after expedition, manned by the best talent and energy of her navy,
against the ice which seemingly blocked every channel to her ambitions
for an arctic route to the Orient.
In 1819 Parry penetrated many intricate passages and overcame one-half
of the distance between Greenland and Bering Sea, winning a prize of
£5000, offered by Parliament to the first navigator to pass the 110th
meridian west of Greenwich. He was also the first navigator to pass
directly north of the magnetic North Pole, which he located
approximately, and thus the first to report the strange experience of
seeing the compass needle pointing due south.
So great was Parry's success that the British government sent him out in
command of two other expeditions in search of the Northwest Passage. In
explorations and discoveries the results of these two later expeditions
were not so rich, but the experience in ice work so obtained gave Parry
conclusions which revolutionized all methods in arctic navigation.
Hitherto all attempts to approach the Pole had been in ships. In 1827
Parry suggested the plan of a dash to the Pole on foot, from a base on
land. He obtained the assistance of the government, which for the fourth
time sent him to the Arctic provided with well-equipped ships and able
officers and men. He carried a number of reindeer with him to his base
in Spitzbergen, purposing to use these animals to drag his sledges. The
scheme proved impracticable, however, and he was compelled to depend on
the muscles of his men to haul his two heavy sledges, which were in
reality boats on steel runners. Leaving Spitzbergen on June 23 with
twenty-eight men, he pushed northward. But the summer sun had broken up
the ice floes, and the party repeatedly found it necessary to take the
runners off their boats in order to ferry across the stretches of open
water. After thirty days' incessant toil Parry had reached 82° 45´,
about 150 miles north of his base and 435 geographical miles from the
Pole. Here he found that, while his party rested, the drift of the ice
was carrying him daily back, almost as much as they were able to make in
the day's work. Retreat was therefore begun.
Parry's accomplishments, marking a new era in polar explorations,
created a tremendous sensation. Knighthood was immediately bestowed upon
him by the King, while the British people heaped upon him all the honors
and applause with which they have invariably crowned every explorer
returning from the north with even a measure of success. In originality
of plan and equipment Parry has been equaled and surpassed only by
Nansen and Peary.
In those early days, few men being rich enough to pay for expeditions to
the north out of their own pockets, practically every explorer was
financed by the government under whose orders he acted. In 1829,
however, Felix Booth, sheriff of London, gave Captain John Ross, an
English naval officer, who had achieved only moderate success in a
previous expedition, a small paddle-wheel steamer, the _Victory_, and
entered him in the race for the Northwest Passage. Ross was assisted, as
mate, by his nephew, James Clark Ross, who was young and energetic, and
who was later to win laurels at the opposite end of the globe. This
first attempt to use steam for ice navigation failed, owing to a poor
engine or incompetent engineers, but in all other respects the Rosses
achieved gloriously. During their five years' absence, 1829-1834, they
made important discoveries around Boothia Felix, but most valuable was
their definite location of the magnetic North Pole and the remarkable
series of magnetic and meteorological observations which they brought
back with them.
No band of men ever set out for the unknown with brighter hopes or more
just anticipation of success than Sir John Franklin's expedition of
1845. The frightful tragedy which overwhelmed them, together with the
mystery of their disappearance, which baffled the world for years and is
not yet entirely explained, forms the most terrible narrative in arctic
history. Franklin had been knighted in 1827, at the same time as Parry,
for the valuable and very extensive explorations which he had conducted
by snowshoes and canoe on the North American coast between the
Coppermine and Great Fish rivers, during the same years that Parry had
been gaining fame in the north. In the interval Franklin had served as
Governor of Tasmania for seven years. His splendid reputation and
ability as an organizer made him, though now fifty-nine years of age,
the unanimous choice of the government for the most elaborate arctic
expedition it had prepared in many years. Franklin's fame and
experience, and that of Crozier and his other lieutenants, who had seen
much service in the north, his able ships, the _Terror_ and the
_Erebus_, which had just returned from a voyage of unusual success to
the Antarctic, and his magnificent equipment, aroused the enthusiasm of
the British to the highest pitch and justified them in their hopes for
bringing the wearying struggle for the Northwest Passage to an immediate
conclusion.
For more than a year everything prospered with the party. By September,
1846, Franklin had navigated the vessels almost within sight of the
coast which he had explored twenty years previously, and beyond which
the route to Bering Sea was well known. The prize was nearly won when
the ships became imprisoned by the ice for the winter, a few miles north
of King William Land. The following June Franklin died; the ice
continued impenetrable, and did not loosen its grip all that year. In
July, 1848, Crozier, who had succeeded to the command, was compelled to
abandon the ships, and, with the 105 survivors who were all enfeebled by
the three successive winters in the Arctic, started on foot for Back
River. How far they got we shall probably never know.
Meanwhile, when Franklin failed to return in 1848--he was provisioned
for only three years--England became alarmed and despatched relief
expeditions by sea from the Bering Sea and the Atlantic and by land
north from Canada, but all efforts failed to gather news of Franklin
till 1854, when Rae fell in with some Eskimo hunters near King William
Land, who told him of two ships that were beset some years previous, and
of the death of all the party from starvation.
In 1857 Lady Franklin, not content with this bare and indirect report of
her husband's fate, sacrificed a fortune to equip a searching party to
be commanded by Leopold McClintock, one of the ablest and toughest
travelers over the ice the world has ever known. In 1859 McClintock
verified the Eskimos' sad story by the discovery on King William Land of
a record dated April, 1848, which told of Franklin's death and of the
abandonment of the ships. He also found among the Eskimos silver plate
and other relics of the party; elsewhere he saw one of Franklin's boats
on a sledge, with two skeletons inside and clothing and chocolate; in
another place he found tents and flags; and elsewhere he made the yet
more ghastly discovery of a bleached human skeleton prone on its face,
as though attesting the truthfulness of an Eskimo woman who, claiming to
have seen forty of the survivors late in 1848, said "they fell down and
died as they walked."
The distinction of being the first to make the Northwest Passage, which
Franklin so narrowly missed, fell to Robert McClure (1850-53) and
Richard Collinson (1850-55), who commanded the two ships sent north
through Bering Strait to search for Franklin. McClure accomplished the
passage on foot after losing his ship in the ice in Barrow Strait, but
Collinson brought his vessel safely through to England. The Northwest
Passage was not again made until Roald Amundsen navigated the tiny
_Gjoa_, a sailing sloop with gasoline engine, from the Atlantic to the
Pacific, 1903-06.
Yankee whalers each year had been venturing further north in Davis
Strait and Baffin Bay and Bering Sea, but America had taken no active
part in polar exploration until the sympathy aroused by the tragic
disappearance of Franklin induced Henry Grinnell and George Peabody to
send out the _Advance_ in charge of Elisha Kent Kane to search for
Franklin north of Smith Sound. In spite of inexperience, which resulted
in scurvy, fatal accidents, privations, and the loss of his ship, Kane's
achievements (1853-55) were very brilliant. He discovered and entered
Kane Basin, which forms the beginning of the passage to the polar ocean,
explored both shores of the new sea, and outlined what has since been
called the American route to the Pole.
Sixteen years later (1871) another American, Charles Francis Hall, who
had gained much arctic experience by a successful search for additional
traces and relics of Franklin (1862-69), sailed the _Polaris_ through
Kane Basin and Kennedy Channel, also through Hall Basin and Robeson
Channel, which he discovered, into the polar ocean itself, thus
completing the exploration of the outlet which Kane had begun. He took
his vessel to the then unprecedented (for a ship) latitude of 82° 11´.
But Hall's explorations, begun so auspiciously, were suddenly terminated
by his tragic death in November from over-exertion caused by a long
sledge journey.
When the ice began to move the ensuing year, his party sought to return,
but the _Polaris_ was caught in the deadly grip of an impassable ice
pack. After two months of drifting, part of the crew, with some Eskimo
men and women, alarmed by the groaning and crashing of the ice during a
furious autumn storm, camped on an ice floe which shortly afterwards
separated from the ship. For five months, December to April, they lived
on this cold and desolate raft, which carried them safely 1300 miles to
Labrador, where they were picked up by the _Tigress_. During the winter
one of the Eskimo women presented the party with a baby, so that their
number had increased during the arduous experience. Meanwhile the
_Polaris_ had been beached on the Greenland shore, and those remaining
on the ship were eventually also rescued.
In 1875 Great Britain began an elaborate attack on the Pole _viâ_ what
was now known as the American route, two ships most lavishly equipped
being despatched under command of George Nares. He succeeded in
navigating the _Alert_ fourteen miles further north than the _Polaris_
had penetrated four years previous. Before the winter set in, Aldrich on
land reached 82° 48´, which was three miles nearer the Pole than Parry's
mark made forty-eight years before, and the following spring Markham
gained 83° 20´ on the polar ocean. Other parties explored several
hundred miles of coast line. But Nares was unable to cope with the
scurvy, which disabled thirty-six of his men, or with the severe frosts,
which cost the life of one man and seriously injured others.
The next expedition to this region was that sent out under the auspices
of the United States government and commanded by Lieutenant--now
Major-General--A. W. Greely, U. S. A., to establish at Lady Franklin Bay
the American circumpolar station (1881). Greely during the two years at
Fort Conger carried on extensive explorations of Ellesmere Land and the
Greenland coast, and by the assistance of his two lieutenants, Lockwood
and Brainard, wrested from Great Britain the record which she had held
for 300 years. Greely's mark was 83° 24´, which bettered the British by
four miles. As the relief ship, promised for 1883, failed to reach him
or to land supplies at the prearranged point south of Fort Conger, the
winter of 1883-84 was passed in great misery and horror. When help
finally came to the camp at Cape Sabine, seven men only were alive.
While these important events were occurring in the vicinity of
Greenland, interesting developments were also taking place in that half
of the polar area north of Siberia. When in 1867 an American whaler,
Thomas Long, reported new land, Wrangell Land, about 500 miles northwest
of Bering Strait, many hailed the discovery as that of the edge of a
supposed continent extending from Asia across the Pole to Greenland, for
the natives around Bering Strait had long excited explorers by their
traditions of an icebound big land beyond the horizon. Such extravagant
claims were made for the new land that Commander De Long, U. S. N.,
determined to explore it and use it as a base for gaining the Pole. But
his ship, the _Jeannette_, was caught in the ice (September, 1879) and
carried right through the place where the new continent was supposed to
be. For nearly two years De Long's party remained helpless prisoners
until in June, 1881, the ship was crushed and sank, forcing the men to
take refuge on the ice floes in mid ocean, 150 miles from the New
Siberian Islands. They saved several boats and sledges and a small
supply of provisions and water. After incredible hardships and
suffering, G. W. Melville, the chief engineer, who was in charge of one
of the boats, with nine men, reached, on September 26, a Russian
village on the Lena. All the others perished, some being lost at sea, by
the foundering of the boats, while others, including De Long, had
starved to death after reaching the desolate Siberian coast.
Three years later some Eskimos found washed ashore on the southeast
coast of Greenland several broken biscuit boxes and lists of stores,
which are said to be in De Long's handwriting. The startling
circumstance that these relics in their long drift from where the ship
sank had necessarily passed across or very near to the Pole aroused
great speculation as to the probable currents in the polar area. Nansen,
who had already made the first crossing of Greenland's ice cap, argued
that the same current which had guided the relics on their long journey
would similarly conduct a ship. He therefore constructed a unique craft,
the _Fram_, so designed that when hugged by the ice pack she would not
be crushed, but would be lifted up and rest on the ice; he provisioned
the vessel for five years and allowed her to be frozen in the ice near
where the _Jeannette_ had sunk, 78° 50´ N., 134° E. (September 25,
1893). When at the end of eighteen months the ship had approached 314
miles nearer to the Pole, Nansen and one companion, Johansen, with
kayaks, dogs, sledges, and three months' provisions, deliberately left
the ship and plunged northward toward the Pole, March 14, 1895. In
twenty-three days the two men had overcome one-third of the distance to
the Pole, reaching 86° 12´. To continue onward would have meant certain
death, so they turned back. When their watches ran down Providence
guided them, and the marvelous physique of both sustained them through
fog and storm and threatened starvation until they reached Franz Josef
Land, late in August. There they built a hut of stones and killed bears
for meat for the winter. In May, 1896, they resumed their southward
journey, when fortunately they met the Englishman Jackson, who was
exploring the Archipelago.
Meanwhile the _Fram_, after Nansen left her, continued her tortuous
drifting across the upper world. Once she approached as near as 85° 57´
to the Pole--only fifteen miles less than Nansen's farthest. At last, in
August, 1896, with the help of dynamite, she was freed from the grip of
the ice and hurried home, arriving in time to participate in the welcome
of Nansen, who had landed a few days earlier.
Franz Josef Land, where Nansen was rescued by Jackson, has served as the
base of many dashes for the Pole. It was from its northernmost point
that the illustrious young member of the royal family of Italy, the Duke
of the Abruzzi, launched the party captained by Cagni that won from
Nansen for the Latin race the honor of the farthest north, 86° 34´, in
1901.
This land, which consists of numerous islands, had been named after the
Emperor of Austria-Hungary by Weyprecht and Payer, leaders of the
Austrian-Hungarian polar expedition of 1872-74, who discovered and first
explored the Archipelago.
It was from Spitzbergen that Andree, with two companions, sailed in his
balloon toward the Pole, in July, 1897, never to be heard from again,
except for three message buoys dropped in the sea a few miles from the
starting-point.
The Northeast Passage was first achieved in 1878-1879 by Adolph Erik
Nordenskjold. Step by step energetic explorers, principally Russian, had
been mapping the arctic coasts of Europe and Siberia until practically
all the headlands and islands were well defined.
Nordenskjold, whose name was already renowned for important researches
in Greenland, Nova Zembla, and northern Asia, in less than two months
guided the steam whaler _Vega_ from Tromsoe, Norway, to the most
easterly peninsula of Asia. But when barely more than 100 miles from
Bering Strait, intervening ice blocked his hopes of passing from the
Atlantic to the Pacific in a single season and held him fast for ten
months.
No résumé of polar exploration is complete without mention of Wm.
Barents (1594-96) who, for the Dutch of Amsterdam, made three attempts
to accomplish the Northeast Passage around Nova Zembla; Wm. Baffin, who
discovered Baffin Bay and Smith Sound (1616); Wm. Scoresby, Sr., who
reached by ship 81° 30´ N., 19´ E. (1806), a record till Parry eclipsed
it; Wm. Scoresby, Jr., who changed all ideas of East Greenland (1822)
and made valuable scientific observations, and the German North Polar
expedition of 1869-70. One of the ships of the latter was crushed in the
ice and sank. The crew escaped to an ice floe on which they drifted in
the darkness of an arctic winter for 1300 miles along the coast of
Greenland to Frederiksthaal.
The preceding brief summary gives only an inadequate conception of the
immense treasures of money and lives expended by the nations to explore
the northern ice world and to attain the apex of the earth. All efforts
to reach the Pole had failed, notwithstanding the unlimited sacrifice of
gold and energy and blood which had been poured out without stint for
nearly four centuries. But the sacrifice had not been without
compensation. Those who had ventured their lives in the contest had not
been actuated solely by the ambition to win a race--to breast the tape
first--but to contribute, in Sir John Franklin's words, "to the
extension of the bounds of science." The scores of expeditions, in
addition to new geographical discoveries, had brought back a wealth of
information about the animals and vegetable life, the winds and
currents, deep sea temperatures, soundings, the magnetism of the earth,
fossils and rock specimens, tidal data, etc., which have enriched many
branches of science and greatly increased the sum of human knowledge.
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, a position which means unusual mental vigor
in an institution which is noted for the fine scholarship and intellect
of its alumni. He realized at once that the goal which had eluded so
many hundreds of ambitious and 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 is 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 rudder, causing the
wheel to reverse. One of the spokes jammed Peary's leg against the
casement, making it impossible to 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 McCormick 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 air, so speedily restored his strength that
at the ensuing Christmas festivities which he arranged for the Eskimos,
he out-raced on snowshoes all the natives and his own men!
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° to 50° below zero, to Independence Bay, which he
discovered and named, July 4, 1892. Imagine his surprise on descending
from the tableland to enter a little valley radiant 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.
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° 24´. No one 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 effective method of combating the rigors
of arctic weather; to utilize the game of the northland, the arctic
reindeer, musk ox, etc., which his explorations had proved comparatively
abundant, thus with fresh meat keeping his men fit and good-tempered
through the depressing 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 base approximately 700 miles from the
Pole, or 200 miles south of the headquarters of Nares, too great a
distance from the Pole to be overcome in one short season. 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
and constructing the _Roosevelt_, 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° 6´, a new world's record. Winds of
unusual fury, by opening big leads, robbed him of the Pole and nearly of
his life.
The story of the last Peary expedition, which resulted in the discovery
of the Pole and of the deep ocean surrounding it, is told in the present
volume by Commander Peary. 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 has taken
hundreds of men north with him on his various expeditions, he has
brought them all back, and in good health, with the exception of two,
who lost their lives in accidents for which the leader was in no wise
responsible. What a contrast this record is to the long list of
fatalities from disease, frost, shipwreck, and starvation which in the
popular mind has made the word arctic synonymous with tragedy and death.
Thus Robert E. Peary has crowned a life devoted to the exploration of
the icy north and to the advancement of science by the hard-won
discovery of the North Pole. The prize of four centuries of striving
yielded at last to the most persistent and scientific attack ever waged
against it. Peary's success was made possible by long experience, which
gave him a thorough knowledge of the difficulties to be overcome, and by
an unusual combination of mental and physical power--a resourcefulness
which enabled him to find a way to surmount all obstacles, a tenacity
and courage which knew no defeat, and a physical endowment such as
nature gives to few men.
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 has struggled these many years against
discouragement and scoffing and how he has persevered under financial
burdens that would have crushed less stalwart shoulders, specially
rejoice that he has "made good at last," and that an American has become
the peer of Hudson, Magellan, and Columbus.
GILBERT H. GROSVENOR.
National Geographic Society,
Washington, D. C., U. S. A.
August 30, 1910.
[Illustration: STELLAR PROJECTION, SHOWING THE RELATION OF THE POLAR SEA
TO THE VARIOUS CONTINENTS]
THE NORTH POLE
CHAPTER I
THE PLAN
It may not be inapt to liken the attainment of the North Pole to the
winning of a game of chess, in which all the various moves leading to a
favorable conclusion had been planned in advance, long before the actual
game began. It was an old game for me--a game which I had been playing
for twenty-three years, with varying fortunes. Always, it is true, I had
been beaten, but with every defeat came fresh knowledge of the game, its
intricacies, its difficulties, its subtleties, and with every fresh
attempt success came a trifle nearer; what had before appeared either
impossible, or, at the best, extremely dubious, began to take on an
aspect of possibility, and, at last, even of probability. Every defeat
was analyzed as to its causes in all their bearings, until it became
possible to believe that those causes could in future be guarded against
and that, with a fair amount of good fortune, the losing game of nearly
a quarter of a century could be turned into one final, complete success.
It is true that with this conclusion many well informed and intelligent
persons saw fit to differ. But many others shared my views and gave
without stint their sympathy and their help, and now, in the end, one
of my greatest unalloyed pleasures is to know that their confidence,
subjected as it was to many trials, was not misplaced, that their trust,
their belief in me and in the mission to which the best years of my life
have been given, have been abundantly justified.
But while it is true that so far as plan and method are concerned the
discovery of the North Pole may fairly be likened to a game of chess,
there is, of course, this obvious difference: in chess, brains are
matched against brains. In the quest of the Pole it was a struggle of
human brains and persistence against the blind, brute forces of the
elements of primeval matter, acting often under laws and impulses almost
unknown or but little understood by us, and thus many times seemingly
capricious, freaky, not to be foretold with any degree of certainty. For
this reason, while it was possible to plan, before the hour of sailing
from New York, the principal moves of the attack upon the frozen North,
it was not possible to anticipate all of the moves of the adversary. Had
this been possible, my expedition of 1905-1906, which established the
then "farthest north" record of 87° 6´, would have reached the Pole. But
everybody familiar with the records of that expedition knows that its
complete success was frustrated by one of those unforeseen moves of our
great adversary--in that a season of unusually violent and continued
winds disrupted the polar pack, separating me from my supporting
parties, with insufficient supplies, so that, when almost within
striking distance of the goal, it was necessary to turn back because of
the imminent peril of starvation. When victory seemed at last almost
within reach, I was blocked by a move which could not possibly have been
foreseen, and which, when I encountered it, I was helpless to meet. And,
as is well known, I and those with me were not only checkmated but very
nearly lost our lives as well.
But all that is now as a tale that is told. This time it is a different
and perhaps a more inspiring story, though the records of gallant defeat
are not without their inspiration. And the point which it seems fit to
make in the beginning is that success crowned the efforts of years
because strength came from repeated defeats, wisdom from earlier error,
experience from inexperience, and determination from them all.
Perhaps, in view of the striking manner in which the final event bore
out the prophecies that I had made, it may be of interest to compare in
some detail the plan of campaign that was announced, over two months
before the _Roosevelt_ sailed from New York on her final voyage to the
North, with the manner in which that campaign was actually executed.
Early in May, 1908, in a published statement I sketched the following
plan:
"I shall use the same ship, the _Roosevelt_; shall leave New York early
in July; shall follow the same route north, via Sydney, C. B., Strait of
Belle Isle, Davis Strait, Baffin Bay, and Smith Sound; shall use the
same methods, equipments, and supplies; shall have a minimum party of
white men, supplemented with Eskimos; shall take on these Eskimos and
dogs in the Whale Sound region as before, and shall endeavor to force my
ship to the same or similar winter quarters on the north shore of Grant
Land as in the winter of 1905-1906.
"The sledge march will begin as before in February, but my route will be
modified as follows: First, I shall follow the north coast of Grant Land
as far west as Cape Columbia, and possibly beyond, instead of leaving
this land at Point Moss as I did before.
"Second, leaving the land, my course will be more west of north than
before, in order to counteract or allow for the easterly set of the ice
between the north coast of Grant Land and the Pole, discovered on my
last expedition. Another essential modification will be a more rigid
massing of my sledge divisions en route, in order to prevent the
possibility of a portion of the party being separated from the rest by
the movement of the ice, with insufficient supplies for a protracted
advance, as happened on the last expedition.
"There is no doubt in my mind that this 'big lead' (a lane of open
water), encountered in both my upward and return marches in my last
expedition, is an essentially permanent feature of this part of the
Arctic Ocean. I have little doubt of my ability to make this 'lead,'
instead of the north coast of Grant Land, my point of departure with
fully loaded sledges. If this is done it will shorten the route to the
Pole by nearly one hundred miles and distinctly simplify the
proposition.
"On the return march in the next expedition I shall probably do
voluntarily what I did involuntarily last time; that is, retreat upon
the north coast of Greenland (a course diagonally _with_ the set of the
ice) instead of attempting to come back to the north coast of Grant
Land (diagonally _against_ the set of the ice). An adjunct of this
program will probably be the establishment of a depot well up the north
coast of Greenland by the first of the supporting parties returning to
the ship."
The main features of this program I summarized as follows:
"First, the utilization of the Smith Sound or 'American' route. This
must be accepted to-day as the best of all possible routes for a
determined, aggressive attack upon the Pole. Its advantages are a land
base one hundred miles nearer the Pole than is to be found at any other
point of the entire periphery of the Arctic Ocean, a long stretch of
coast line upon which to return, and a safe and (to me) well-known line
of retreat independent of assistance, in the event of any mishap to the
ship.
"Second, the selection of a winter base which commands a wider range of
the central polar sea and its surrounding coasts than any other possible
base in the Arctic regions. Cape Sheridan is practically equidistant
from Crocker Land, from the remaining unknown portion of the northeast
coast of Greenland, and from my 'Nearest the Pole' of 1906.
"Third, the use of sledges and Eskimo dogs. Man and the Eskimo dog are
the only two machines capable of such adjustment as to meet the wide
demands and contingencies of Arctic travel. Airships, motor cars,
trained polar bears, etc., are all premature, except as a means of
attracting public attention.
"Fourth, the use of the hyperborean aborigine (the Whale Sound Eskimo)
for the rank and file of the sledge party. It seems unnecessary to
enlarge upon the fact that the men whose heritage is life and work in
that very region must present the best obtainable material for the
personnel of a serious Arctic party. This is my program. The object of
the work is the clearing up, or at least the fixing in their general
proportions, of the remaining large problems in the American segment of
the polar regions and the securing for the United States of that great
world trophy which has been the object of effort and emulation among
practically all the civilized nations of the world for the last three
centuries."
The details of this plan have been here set forth so explicitly because
the faithfulness with which they were carried out constitutes a record
which is perhaps unique in the annals of Arctic exploration. Compare
this scheme, if you please, with the manner of its execution. As had
been planned, the expedition sailed from New York early in July, 1908,
July 6, to be exact. It sailed from Sydney July 17, from Etah August 18,
and arrived at Cape Sheridan, the winter quarters of the _Roosevelt_, on
September 5, within a quarter of an hour of the same time it had arrived
at the same spot three years before. The winter was occupied in hunting,
in various side journeys, in making our sledging equipment, and in
moving supplies from the _Roosevelt_ along the northern shore of Grant
Land to Cape Columbia, which was to be our point of departure from the
land on our drive for the Pole itself.
The sledge divisions left the _Roosevelt_ from February 15 to 22, 1909,
rendezvoused at Cape Columbia, and on March 1 the expedition left Cape
Columbia, heading across the Polar Ocean for the Pole. The 84th parallel
was crossed on March 18, the 86th on March 23, the Italian record was
passed the next day, the 88th parallel on April 2, the 89th on April 4,
and the North Pole was reached on April 6 at ten o'clock in the morning.
I spent thirty hours at the Pole with Matt Henson, Ootah, the faithful
Eskimo who had gone with me in 1906 to 87° 6´, the then "farthest
north," and three other Eskimos who had also been with me on previous
expeditions. The six of us left the much desired "ninety north" on April
7 on the return journey and reached land at Cape Columbia again on April
23.
It will be noted that while the journey from Cape Columbia to the Pole
consumed thirty-seven days, (though only twenty-seven marches) we
returned from the Pole to Cape Columbia in only sixteen days. The
extraordinary speed of the return journey is to be accounted for by the
fact that we merely had to retrace our old trail instead of making a new
one, and because we were fortunate in encountering no delays. Excellent
conditions of ice and weather also contributed, not to mention the fact
that the exhilaration of success lent wings to our sorely battered feet.
But Ootah, the Eskimo, had his own explanation. Said he: "The devil is
asleep or having trouble with his wife, or we should never have come
back so easily."
It will be noted in this comparison, that practically the only feature
of the plan from which essential deviation was made was in returning to
Cape Columbia on the coast of Grant Land instead of further eastward to
the northern coast of Greenland as I had done in 1906. This change was
made for excellent reasons, which will be made clear in their proper
place. Upon this record there is only one shadow--a tragic one indeed. I
refer, of course, to the lamentable death of Prof. Ross G. Marvin, who
was drowned on April 10, four days after the Pole had been reached,
forty-five miles north of Cape Columbia, while returning from 86° 38´
north, in command of one of the supporting parties. With this sad
exception, the history of the expedition is flawless. We returned as we
went, in our own ship, battered but unharmed, in excellent health and
with a record of complete success.
There is a lesson in all this--a lesson so obvious that it is perhaps
superfluous to point it out. The plan, so carefully made and executed
with such faithfulness to detail, was composed of a number of elements,
the absence of any one of which might have been fatal to success. We
could scarcely have succeeded without the help of our faithful Eskimos;
nor even with them, had it not been for our knowledge of their
capacities for work and endurance, and for the confidence which years of
acquaintance had taught them to repose in me. We could certainly not
have succeeded without the Eskimo dogs which furnished the traction
power for our sledges, and so enabled us to carry our supplies where no
other power on earth could have moved them with the requisite speed and
certainty. It may be that we could not have succeeded without the
improved form of sledge which I was able to construct and which,
combining in its construction, strength, lightness, and ease of
traction, made the heavy task of the dogs far easier than it would
otherwise have been. It may even be that we should have failed had it
not been for so simple a thing as an improved form of water boiler which
I was fortunate enough to have hit upon. By its aid we were able to melt
ice and make tea in ten minutes. On our previous journeys this process
had taken an hour. Tea is an imperative necessity on such a driving
journey, and this little invention saved one and one-half hours in each
day while we were struggling toward the Pole on that journey when time
was the very essence of success.
Success crowned the work, it is true, but, for all that, it is a genuine
pleasure to reflect that even had we failed, I should have had nothing
to reproach myself with in the way of neglect. Every possible
contingency that years of experience had taught me to expect was
provided for, every weak spot guarded, every precaution taken. I had
spent a quarter of a century playing the Arctic game. I was fifty-three
years old, an age beyond which, perhaps, with the one exception of Sir
John Franklin, no man had ever attempted to prosecute work in the Arctic
regions. I was a little past the zenith of my strength, a little
lacking, perhaps, in the exuberant elasticity and élan of more youthful
years, a little past the time when most men begin to leave the strenuous
things to the younger generation; but these drawbacks were fully
balanced perhaps by a trained and hardened endurance, a perfect
knowledge of myself, and of how to conserve my strength. I knew it was
my last game upon the great Arctic chess-board. It was win this time or
be forever defeated.
The lure of the North! It is a strange and a powerful thing. More than
once I have come back from the great frozen spaces, battered and worn
and baffled, sometimes maimed, telling myself that I had made my last
journey thither, eager for the society of my kind, the comforts of
civilization and the peace and serenity of home. But somehow, it was
never many months before the old restless feeling came over me.
Civilization began to lose its zest for me. I began to long for the
great white desolation, the battles with the ice and the gales, the
long, long arctic night, the long, long arctic day, the handful of odd
but faithful Eskimos who had been my friends for years, the silence and
the vastness of the great, white lonely North. And back I went
accordingly, time after time, until, at last, my dream of years came
true.