ARCTIC EXPEDITION.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXIV, Issue 1923, 5 November 1906, Page 2

ARCTIC EXPEDITION.

LIEUTENANT PEARY RETURNING

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Received 4.52 p m-, Nov. 3. PRESS ASSOCIATION—COPYRIGHT London. Nov 3.

Lieutenant Peary is returning home from his Arctic expedition. He had reached 87 degrees 6 miles north on July IC, beating the Duke of Abruzzi’s record.

Lieutenant Peary started on his expedition on 12th July, 1905, in the Roosevelt, a specially constructed vessel provided with armature to force its way through ice. With Peary are seventy hardy young sailors from Maine. It was his intention to force the vessel as far north as possible along the shores of Grant Land, at the southei-n extremity of the northern Polar Sea, and then from this land base make sledge journeys across the great central Polar Pack. He carries two years’ supplies, and before leaving declared that his vessel was strong enough to force herself successfully through the opposing ice floes and over difficulties where others have failed.

Lieutenant Peary, who has devoted many years of hard work and scientific study to Arctic exploration, expected to establish his base on the shores of Grant Land in September, and then devote the months of darkness to erecting various depots for provisions. When dawn came he proposed to start north with Eskimos in an endeavor to recover tho remaining 490 miles of unknown land and frozen sea which lie between the northern shores of Grant Land and the North Pole.

Mrs Peary and their twelve year-old daughter accompanied him to Grant Land, and expected to remain aboard in specially-constructed cabins, while Lieutenant Peary endeavored to accomplish the last stage of his great journeyThe Roosevelt was furnished with an installation for wireless telegraphy.