PEARY DEAD

Dominion, Volume 13, Issue 127, 23 February 1920, Page 8

PEARY DEAD

DISCOVERER OF THE NORTH POLE

By Telegraph—Presß Association-Copyright

Washington, February 20. . ' Eeai-Adniiral Robert Edwin Peary, explorer, is dead. Boar-Adniiral Peary suffered from pertneious ."anaemia. Thirty . blood transfusions were made, but they failed to BaVd his lifq.—Aus.-N.Z. Cable Asan. .

Bear-Admiral Peary, who was bom in Pennsylvania in 185G, entered tho United States Navy as! ah engineer when ho was twenty-live; and,.li-.e jours later, in UJb, he went-oh his first journey to tho I'lir North—a reconnaissance of the inland Ice of Greenland, penetrating. 100 mite Inland, and Teaching 7525 feet abovo sealevel, liter employments at home and in-Nicaragua he made his flrpt expedition to North Greenland in IS9I-92, discover ing Independence Bay, and threo years afterwards he made, another journey m the samo region. In tho course of tnese explorations ho marched across the Greenland ice-cap, covered 65U miles in each direction in fifty-eight days, and came to tho conclusion- that Greenland was an island, ending at about the 82nd parallel. ■ ■ , . ' By this time Peary's determination to reach the Pole was fixed. In 189G and 1897 he made summer voyages in the Arctic in connection -.with preparations for a Pola* expedition, taknig back to America two of the three Cape York meteorites,, the largest known meteorites in the .world. Then, in 1893, he sailed on an expedition for the attainment of the Pole. This expedition was carefully prepared, and set out in the Hope, leaving the steamer "Windward to follow 'with supplies. It suffered many] misfortunes. It was storm-bound in January 1899, 'and Lieutenant Peary, as he was then, lost four toes from his right foot and three from his left foot owing to frostbite. He was helpless for three Months, and as soon as ho was able to move he pushed on. with his crutches tied'to the sledge in which he travelled. ' His condition became worse, and he decided to spend another winter in the north and though) attempt to push on a"ain.- • As soon as the Windward was free of the ice. in August, 1890. lie sent her to St. John's to be refitted, and when she returned north she carried tho explorer's wife and little daughter. •In April 1900, Pea.ry again started for tho north from Btmh. .Accompanied by Matthew Hen6'6n. his devoted negro servant aM oho Eskimo, he reached 83deg. 50min. north,' and then wide stretches of open water put an end to the hopo of further advance. The explorers turned back to Independence Bay, and then, a*ain baffled in their desire of finding aVay north, returned to their winter quarters. . ■. Still another winter was spent in tine North, and in the spring'of 1901. Peary once more set out towards the Pole. Again he failed to get to the goal, and returned-to find, near Capo Sabine, the 'Windward; with his wife'and daughter on board. / He remained on board two or three months,, and then the Windward sailed south, leaving P"ary to spend yet another winter amid the snow and eternal ice. Again, in tho following (Hiring,'there was misfortune. On April 21 Peary wrote in his diary: "The game is off.. .My dream of sixteen years is ended." , • . He returned home in the autumn or 1902 after four years in the Arctic. In 'the 'course of this period he had found what was then believed to be the most northcrlv land in the world, had rounded the northern extremity of the Greenland archipelago, and had attained the then "highest north" in the Western Hemisphere. . k - ''■'•■ . , Hardly was ho back in America before hi began making preparations for a further expedition. In December, 1903, he .was-reported to be negotiating for the ■nurcnase of a steamer, and President Roosevelt and the Navy Department gave . him 'another'three years' leave. It was not, however,' until the summer of 1905 that Peary was able again to sail for the mysterious.TCgion' that had so lota fascinated him. This iime he went out in a steamer called the liooscvelt, and lip. .was. as' usual, certain that ho would succeed.. The result was that tho intrepid explorer "'reached "farthest north," getting'.to within 200 miles of the Polo, thirty odd miles nearer than tho point attained by Captain Cagni, of the Duke of the Abnmi s expedition. In 1908 Peary started in the Roosevelt oh the journey which was to bring him his' final success. . Ho left Etah on August 18, wintered fp Grant Land, and set forward over the ico from Cape Columbia on March 1, 1909. A party oi six started with him, and moved in sec- ' tibiis, one in front of anothor. They were gradually sent back as supplies diminished. At tho end of tho month Captain BaTtlett was the only,white mar. left with Penry, and he turn°d Iwk i" 87 degree 48 minutes N., the highest latitude- then ever reached. Peary, v.-itli 'his negro servant and four Eskimos pushed on, and on April G. 1909, reached " the North Pole. They remained fonx thirtv hours, took observations, awl or sounding,; a few miles from tho Pole found no bottom at 1500 fathoms. Tin sTeturn was made'in the face of no little ~ difficulty, but the party, with the e'xeep ; tion of one drowned, came safely to thi ■ Eoosevelt, which left her winter quarter! "on July 18, and reached Indian Harhou: on September 5. ■ Just before the news came of Peary'i success, another American explorer, Dr F. A. Cook, returning from Greenlani , .to..Europe on a Danish ship, claimed tha lie had reached the North Pole oi April 21, 1908. He. had accompanied ai : .expedition northward in 1907, preparei to attempt to roach the Polo if opnor tunity offered, and according to his owi story had done so, leaving his part; ,' and taking only some Eskimos, early ii 1908. Nothing had been heard of hiii • -since March of that year, and it wn supposed that lip had perished. Cook' claim to have forestalled Peary was a . first credited in various circles, and h was given a rapturous reception at Conen ■hagen; but scientific opinion in Ehglani and. America was more reserved, an '-.eventually, jiftor a prolonged dispute, . ,„special, committeo of tho University c ■> Copenhagen, to whom his documents wer submitted, declared that they containe> • no praof that he had reached the Pole By that time most othor people had com to an adverse conclusion and the senss tion was over. ' .