Before the end of June, Civil Engineer Robert E. Peary of the United
States Navy will have sailed on another expedition for the Arctic
regions. The party will go by the way of Newfoundland, Baffin's Bay,
and Whale Sound, to Inglefield Gulf, which lies just southeast of
Smith Sound and south of the promontory containing the great Humboldt
glacier. The winter camp will be established at the head of Bowdoin
Bay, some forty miles to the east of Redcliffe House, where Lieutenant
Peary passed the winter of '91, '92.
[Illustration: ROBERT E. PEARY.]
The programme of the expedition may be briefly summarized as follows:
The party will be absent about two years and a half, a three years'
leave of absence having been accorded Lieutenant Peary by the Navy
Department. They expect to be in camp, as indicated, by the last week
in July, when the staunch "Falcon," a sealing steamer which carries
them, will land the expedition and return to Newfoundland. The months
of August and September, all they will have before the Arctic night
sets in, will be utilized in three ways: a party will be sent inland
over the ice-cap with a large store of provisions, which will be
stored as far to the north as possible, to await the expedition of the
ensuing spring; another party, under Lieutenant Peary himself, will
make a careful survey of Inglefield Gulf, which is of rare scientific
interest on account of the tremendous glaciers which discharge into
it; and a third party will busy itself hunting reindeer and other game
to supply the expedition with fresh meat.
By November 1, 1893, they will go into winter quarters, all occupying
a single house, which will be made as comfortable as possible. During
the five or six months of darkness, scientific work will be carried
on, including a thorough study of Esquimo habits and institutions.
Clothing will be made of reindeer skins, and, in general, preparations
be completed for the advance over the ice-cap. Lieutenant Peary hopes
to start the sledges northward early in March, thus gaining two months
on the start made in '92. The season of '94 will be spent in advancing
as rapidly as possible to the northern extremity of Greenland, to
Independence Bay, discovered by Lieutenant Peary in his recent
expedition. At this point the party will divide, several men being
detailed to explore the northeastern coast of Greenland as far to the
south as Cape Bismarck, while Lieutenant Peary with two picked men
will push across the fjord separating Greenland from the land beyond,
and will advance thence still farther to the north, as circumstances
may direct. It is probable that Lieutenant Peary will spend the winter
of '94 to '95 somewhere in the neighborhood of northernmost Greenland,
very probably in the most extreme northern latitude in which any white
man has wintered. In the spring of '95, or as soon as the season will
permit, he will make a further and final advance, leaving time enough
for the party to return to Inglefield Gulf before the fall. There a
relief ship will be in waiting to carry the expedition back to New
York with the results of their explorations.
So much for Lieutenant Peary's time-table; now for what he hopes to
accomplish.
To begin with, the party expect to attain the highest north ever
reached by any Arctic expedition. The present record is held by the
Greely expedition, two members of which reached 83 deg. 24' north
latitude. The farthest north reached by Lieutenant Peary in his last
expedition was 82 deg. north latitude, which is some eighty-four
geographical miles south of the point reached by Lieutenant Lockwood
of the Greely party. Then, as already mentioned, a complete survey
will be made of Inglefield Gulf, and also of the entirely unknown
stretch of land on the northeastern coast of Greenland, between
Independence Bay and Cape Bismarck.
In addition to this, the main object of the expedition is to make a
complete map of the land lying to the north of Greenland, or, rather,
the Archipelago, for it is believed that this region is occupied by an
extensive group of islands. Unfortunately there is reason for thinking
that the lofty ice-cap which will allow the explorers to reach the
northernmost point of Greenland by sledging over the inland ice does
not continue in the same way over the islands to the north of
Greenland. Both Lieutenant Peary in his observations on the east, and
Lieutenant Lockwood on the west, remarked that the land stretching
away to the north was in many places bare of ice and snow, and rugged
in its character. One reason for this absence of an inland ice-cap
here is the fact that these islands to the north lie low in the ocean
compared with mountainous Greenland. Hence, in the summer, which is
the only season when an advance would be possible, the ice and snow
melt to a great extent and leave the land bare. Now in case Lieutenant
Peary finds that there is no continuous ice on this northern land, he
will skirt around the shore on the ice of the open sea, for this is
present winter and summer alike. It is likely that such an advance
over the ice-pack will be attended by very serious difficulties, the
ice being heaped up in broken and uneven surfaces, with mountains and
chasms to baffle the party. There may also be spaces of open water
where boats or rafts will have to be used instead of sledges. At any
rate, the advance will be made as far as possible, and the land to the
north of Greenland studied and mapped as far as may be.
It is not the purpose of the expedition to seek the North Pole itself.
They may and very probably will get nearer to the Pole than anyone has
hitherto done. Lieutenant Peary is confident that he will make the
farthest north, and General Greely is inclined to admit this, and told
me some days ago in Washington that he should not be surprised if
Lieutenant Peary reached 85 deg. north latitude. In any event, an approach
to the North Pole will be an incident in the expedition, and not its
main object.
Several important considerations make it probable that Lieutenant
Peary's present expedition will attain a considerable measure of
success. In the first place, in starting from Bowdoin Bay instead of
from Redcliffe House, there will be a gain of forty miles rough
hauling, which meant in the recent expedition two weeks' valuable
time. From Bowdoin Bay, the party will be able to climb to the inland
ice-cap by the shortest and easiest possible route. The fact that an
abundant supply of provisions will be sent ahead during the present
summer will be a great advantage, and will do away with the necessity
of a supporting party such as was employed on the last expedition. To
save the carrying of a ton or so of provisions for even a hundred
miles is a matter of great importance. Lieutenant Peary expects to
make a further saving in time by choosing a course midway between the
one taken on his last journey to Independence Bay and the one taken on
his return journey. These two courses, it will be remembered, were
unsatisfactory, because in the advance to Independence Bay he went too
far to the west and was caught in immense fissures and depressions
leading to the glaciers, while on the return journey he went so far
to the east that the great elevation above the sea level, often eight
thousand feet or more, made it difficult to find the way or take
observations on account of perpetual fogs. Now he proposes to avoid
the two extremes, and to search for an easier course in a happy
medium. A still greater gain in time will be made by starting the
expedition early in March, 1894, instead of waiting until May, as was
the case before.
A novel feature of the expedition, and one that will be of great
service, it is believed, in hauling the loads, will be the use of pack
horses in addition to the dog teams. Lieutenant Peary, during his
recent western trip, secured a number of hardy burros in Colorado,
which he believes will be able to endure the Arctic winter. At any
rate, they will be very valuable in carrying the advance provisions
this present season, and on a pinch they can be turned into steaks. It
has been found possible to fit snow shoes to the hoofs of these pack
horses, so as to allow them to advance as rapidly as the dogs. An
experiment similar to this has been tried in Norway, where ponies have
been used successfully on snow, and also in Alaska.
As to the size of the exploring party, it will be small, comprising
not more than ten men in all, and several of these will be left behind
at the winter quarters. Lieutenant Peary fully realizes that an
exploring party is no stronger than the weakest of its members, and
will take along with him only men whose endurance and loyalty have
been fully demonstrated. From the winter camp the line of advance will
be Independence Bay, where the party will divide, Lieutenant Peary
pushing on to the north, and his other men exploring southward to
Cape Bismarck. From that point the latter party will be instructed to
return to the winter camp directly across Greenland. There is no human
way of knowing how Lieutenant Peary will return.
One question which will occur to anxious friends of the explorer is,
how Lieutenant Peary and his two companions will live during the
winter of '94 and '95, at the northernmost point of Greenland, where
the foot of man has never trod, and where no supplies could reach
them. The answer to this question is, that the party will take with
them a very large supply of dried meat and other necessaries, and that
they count on finding musk oxen in the region where they will camp. In
his previous expedition, Lieutenant Peary killed five of these musk
oxen near Independence Bay, and he saw many others. With such a supply
of fresh meat, and with abundant means of protecting themselves
against the cold, there is no reason why the party may not live
through the winter without serious danger or even extraordinary
discomfort. Leigh Smith was able to pass a winter on Franz-Josef Land
under much less favorable conditions.
In a general way it may be said, in conclusion, that the present Peary
expedition starts out with bright prospects. Advantage has been taken
of errors and oversights made by others in the past. Dangers and
difficulties have been foreseen, and will be guarded against. A
sensible, and to a great extent feasible, plan of advance has been
adopted. In a word, everything would seem to have been done to prevent
the recurrence of one of those wretched tragedies which have stained
and saddened the records of Arctic exploration.
EDITOR'S NOTE.--The expedition of Lieutenant Peary is undertaken
at his own expense, with the aid of voluntary subscriptions.
Contributions from one dollar up may be sent to Professor
Angelo Heilprin, Academy of Natural Sciences, Philadelphia,
Pennsylvania.