PEARY'S INDICTMENT.

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 637, 14 October 1909, Page 7

PEARY'S INDICTMENT.

COOK AND THE POLE, ALLEGED DASH A VERY SHORT ONE, ESKIMO EVIDENCE. (By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright.) ; (Boc. October 13, 10.20 p.m.) New York, October 13. The Poary Club has issued its. muchheralded statement intended.to disprove Dr. Copk'B claim to havo reached the Polo on April 21, 1008. The document states that Com* mander Poary examined the Etah Eskimos, including the boys Itookashoo and Ahpolah, and that they all agree that Cook only reached the first stretch of open water in tho. shore ioo to the north of Cape Hubbard; Cook's "dash to tho Polo" may be described thus.: After tho other Eskimos turned back, Cook and the' two boys mentioned wont in a northerly to north-westerly direction, with two 6ledges and 20 odd dogs, one'more march, where they encountered rough ice and a lead of open water. ' ' Thoy tamed westward to south-westward for a short distance,'and then returned to Hoiberg Land, where they had left a cache. Hero the party remained for four or five sleeps. Thence they moved to a' small island visiblo from Cape Northwest, and returned to Amundritgnos Land. The Eskimo boys told Peary that they killed no game, lost no dogs, and returned with loaded sledges. . Captain Bartlett, Messrs. M'Millan and Borop, and the negro Henson also sign a statement which includes a chart, drawn by the boys, indicating the principal incidents of the alleged journey. CONTINUATION OF PEARY'S STORY. FAST TRAVELLING. Fremantle, October 13. "The Times" files to hand continue the story of. Commander • Peary,'s journey to the North Pole, taking up the narrative at 87 degrees 48 minutes,,where the fourth and last supporting party, under Captain Bartlett, consisting of two Eskimos, one sledge, and eighteen, dogs, returned. Peary says:— , ~ An Ideal Party. ' / * I -..."My party might bo regarded fts nn ideal one. it consistod of experienced men, 1 who were loyal and responsive to hit will; as the' lingers of my right hand, Four'had most intimat© knowledge'or dogs and sledge?, aud ico In j were their heritage. Two—-Honson and _Ootam--had been toy companions to tliq | l-artnest North three years before; tho two others— Eingingwau and Sigloo—had been in Clark $ narrow escape, and at that time were willing, to go anywhere with my immediate party. < •••••• •. \. : . _ , [According to a New York cablegram of hoptembor H. Peary's negro follower,- Benson, wag not m the party. that reachod the Polo, .m,. consist °d. of Peary and one Eskimo,] - i Ihe dogs were the pick of 133 Avith which 1' loft Cape Columbia. They ,were powerful males, as hard; as nails,: in; good flesh; with not a Riiperfluotis ounce. .Supplies were 'ample •i j ? a y®» with-tne 'reserve—repre.sentod by the dogs themselves-Wfi could have mnde them last nfty more. i "A little , after midnight we hit the trail. .As 1. climbed the pressure ridge, 1 1 'drew', up another-'hole m my' belt, ■tho-thfrd since we started. A good pace was kept up (or . ion hours,,- till we reached - twenty-live mjles beyond tho 88th parallel.!...few-hours'- filoep,thon on again, with tho eun circling, now practically horizontal. Ten: ;hours, ,w© had covered .twenty miles and half, tho-way b tho oitth parallel.: . .4: • J Lead-Ice: Buckles Under Last Sledge. . Ihe ice was grinding audibly in' every direction, but there was no visiblo motion.-;-After-a march of something over twenty hours, the dogs on-the;trot, : wo-found - ourselves twenty miles nearer the end. We. rushed across tt load 100. yards wide, which buckled under the sledges, and finally broke as-tho last sledge left it. ■ ' v . - ■ "Ihe tenperataw ;was'.Udeg.. ...below- zero again. W6 snatched a sleep, and on once more over the 89th: parallel. 'Tho'dogs occasionally galloped, and; twenty-fivo miles .were, thrown behind. A bitter wind Was blowing, burning the, face till it craoked, We had a little longer sl<?bp here, as all had necd : of it; then on again. 1 The weatherswas thick, but gavo me no uneasiness. ■'. "I had taken 1 observations ■ which indicated our position as SDdigrees 25 minutes. A dense, lifeless pall hung overhead-black at the horizon, the ice beneath ghastly chalky white, with no relief. was even- better. There was scarcely any.' of Vthei'hard granular last summer s surface"of the .old floes,'dotted With' sapphire ice of tho previous summer's lakes. •Ihere was also a rise-in tho temporature to 15 degrees below zero. The friction on the sledges was reduced. Twelve hours, and we had travelled forty miles, and had met.no sign of a lead during the march. i The Prlzo of Three Centuries. ' "I had made my five marches,, and'was in time for hasty noon observations, which indicated our position as 89 degrees 57 minutes. ■ I now quote from my .journal, referring to some hours later:— ' - . ~"The Pole at last! The prize of tnreo centuries, my dreain and goal for twenty years has been realised,.' Mine at last I, : I cannot bring myself to roaliso it. It all seems so '' • .simple, so commonplaco." /'Thirty hourS wero passod at the Polo, and were spent.in observations. I went some ton miles, to the right of it, taking photographs, planting flags,; depositing records,: and studying the horizon with my telescope for possible land, and searching for a practicable placo to make a sounding. ''Ten .hours after 1 our arrival the . clouds cleared. before a light bret'/A and .until our departure, after noon on April 7,. the weather . ,wfis oloudloss and flawless. Tho minimum temperature during. the. twenty; hours was 33 depees below zero, and maximum 12 degrees

'We had reached the goal, but our return Was still before us. It was ossential that we should reach land before next spring tide, and must strain every nerve. Wo would try double marches on the return: In our marched we could' mako ten: miles, eat bur lunch in the igloos, coyer another march, eat and, sloep, ana in a 'few hours do s it over again. As n faot, wo nearly did this all the time, covering; on the homeward, journey five outward marches in three return marches. ; "The6e three marches! brought us back to the igloos,'where Captain Bartlett had turned "nek. It was in a wild sweep of a northerly gale, with drifting suow and ice rafting under ds,; that wo arrived just south of ; where Marvin had turned back. We came to where the party had built Eoveral igloos/while, delayed by open leads. i Further south ■ we found where the' captain had been held up by an open lead. , ,• . Negotiating the Leadi. Fortunately, the movement of , these leads was 6iinply to open and shut. . Sometimes tlje ioo was firm enough to carry us across; sometimes we had to make detours; and sometimes there was a brief halt: for a lead to olose. Sometimes, again, we improvised a ferry on an ice cake.

"We kept tho trail without difficulty down to the tenth of the outward igloos. Hero fortune favoured 11?, no pronounced movement of th« ico having taken pines. Since the captain had passed we had his trail to follow. Oft April 23 we passed our sledges up tho vertical edge of the glacier fringe, vest of Capo Columbia! ■ ; 1 "When the last slsdge caihe ljp I thought tho Eskimos had gone oraiy. They jelled and danced themselves helpless. Ootah remarked in Eskiino: 'Tho;devil is asleep or having trouble with his wife, or wo never should have come back so easy.' A few hours later wo arrived at Crane City, under the bluffness of Cap Columbia., After putting a four-pound pemmican into enoli dog to keep liini quiet, ire went asleep. Never shall I forgot that sleep, It wasqleep, Bleep, and then turn over and' sleep.: 1 never thought of tho morrow, and never of? the nightmare of Winding nolle."