THE NORTH POLE

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LII, Issue 343, 19 March 1910, Page 10

THE NORTH POLE

COMMANDER i'EAUYAS STORY Of ILLS VOYAGE.

The first instalment of Commander Peary's story or the discovery of the North Pole is published in tile current issue of Nash's .Magazine. The article deals principally with the .preparations for and rite equipment of the expedition, and mentions various incidents ot the early stages of the voyage of the Roosevelt, up to the departure from Cape Yoi-k, on August 1, 1!)0S. We give the following passages from the story:— My most impelling desire, when .1 knew ior a certainty that 1 had reached my goal, was for a little rest; but after two or three hours of absolutely fatigueimpelled sleep, a state of mental exaltation made further rest impossible. For more than a score of years that mathematical pjint on the earth's surface had been the object of my every effort. To attain it I had dedicated my whole being, physical, mental and moral; had risked my liie a hundred times and the lives of those who had been glad to take the chances with me; had given all my .own money and the money of my friends. That last voyage was my eighth into the Arctic. I had spent in those regions eighteen years out of the twenty-three between my thirtieth: and my fifty-third year, and the five years .which I Lad spent in civilisation during that period had been mainly occupied with preparations for Arctic journeys.

WHERE IT IS ALWAYS DAY

LIGHT,

We arrived at 90deg. north at ten o'clock on the morning of April 6, and we left there about four o'clock in the aiternoon of April 7. Only by our watches, of course we distinguish the jnorning from the afternoon, as the sun at that point swings round and round the heavens at a certain altitude, and it is always daylight at that season of the year.

During those thirty hours at the Pole I made f-he necessary observations for position, went some ten miles beyond my-camp, and some eight miles to the righT of it, planted my flags, deposited my records, took photographs, studied the horizon through my telescope for possible land, and sought for a suitable place to make a sounding. The other happenings at those thirty hours will be covered in detail at the appropriate place in the narrative which follows.

SOME NOVEL SUGGESTIONS,

Commander -Peary had intended to go north in the summer or 1907, but the "diabolical delays of ship contractors" had not entered into his scheme of reckoning, and he was compelled to spend most of the winter of 1907-8 waiting for another summer and trying tc possess his soul in patience.

During all this waiting time (he says) I was constantly in receipt of crank letters from people all over the country, in fact, from all over the world, presenting ideas which in the opinion oi the writers would absolutely ensure my reaching the Pole. Among those letters can be found offers of everything in the line of flying machines, motors" submarine boats; portable sawmills to be installed on the shores of the Central Polar Sea for the purpose of shaping lumber with which to construct enclosed wooden tunnels projecting over the •surface cf the Polar Sea; soud lines to be eonvayed through horse transported on hose r : jrriage, so that the outlying parties could be warmed and invigorated with hot soup from the central sta- v tion; and one device, the secret oi which the inventor would not divulge, but which apparently amounted to thfs: if I could get the" machine up there, and could get it pointed to Ihe right direction, and could hold on enough, it would shoot me to the PoU without fail.

Many friends of the expedition who could not send cash sent useful articles of equipment, for the comfort or amusement of (be men. Among such articles were a billiard-table, various gi<mes, and innumerable books. A' member oi the expedition having said to a newspaper man a short time before the Roosevelt sailed that we had not much reading matter, the ship was deluged with .books, which came literally in waggonloads. They were strewn in evc.rv cabin, in every locker, on the mess tables, on the deck—everywhere. Finally, in order to make room for ourselves, we ha'd to feed some of the literature to the boilers. But the generosity of the public was very gratifying, and there was much good reading among the books and magazines. When the time came for the Roosevelt to sail, wc had everything which we absolutely needed in the way of equipment, including boxes oi Christmas candy.

A TOUCHING FAREWELL. After paying a high tribute to various members of the expedition, Commander Peary gives particulars of the supplies taken by the expedition. The essentials needed in a serious Arctic sledge journey, he says, are four: Pemmican, tea, ship's biscuit, and condensed milk. For meat he always depended on the country itself. After describing the departure of the Roosevelt from New York, he says:— We got away from North Sydney about hali-past three in the afternoon of June 17, in glittering, golden sunshine. As we passed the signal station they signalled us, "Good-bye and a prosperous voyage"; replied, "Thank r you," and dipped our colors. A little tug which we had charted to take our t.'uests back to Sydney followed the Roosevelt as far as Low Point Light, outside, the harbor; there she ran alongside, and Mrs. Peary and the children and Colonel. Borup,"with two or three other friends, transferred to her. As my five-year-old son, Robert, zjunr., kissed me good-bye, he said: ."Come bavk, soon, dad." With reluctant eyes 1 watched the little tug grow smaller and smaller in the blue distance. Another farewell—and there had been so many! Brave, noble little woman! You have borne with me the •brunt of all my Arctic work. But, somehow, this parting was less aad than any which had gone before. I think we both felt that it was the last.

By the time the stars came out the last item oi supplies taken on at North Sydney were stowed, and the decks at least were unusually free for ar Arctic ship just starting northwards —all but the quarter-deck, which wa& piled high with bags of coal. As we steamed steadily northward the nights grew shorter and shorter, and lighter, lighter, and lighter, so that when we "rossed the Arctic Circle, soon after midnight on July 26, we were in perpetual daylight. I have crossed tne Circle some twenty times, going out and coming, so the fine edge of that experience has been somewhat dulled for me; but the Arctic "tender-feet" among my party,. Dr. Godsell, McMillan and Borup, were appropriately 'impressed. They felt as one feels in crossing the Equator ior the first time—that it is an event.

ARRIVAL AT ', Ai'K Y>i|X

We reached iV.pe York on '.he )ir.-i day of August, tLpo York is lite hold LlulT of the stretch of Arctic toast inhabited by my Esquimaux, the most. northerly human beings of the world. It is the headland whose snowy cap ! have seen so many times rising in the distance above the horizon line of Melville Lay. as my ships have steamed north.

As we approached Cape York, the headland was encircled and guarded by an enormous squadron of floating icebergs, which made it dillieu'l for the Roosevelt to get near the shore; but long before we reached these bergs the hunters oi the settlement were seen putting out to meet us in their Uny skin canoes or kayaks.

It was with a peculiar ieeling of satisfaction that I saw the men putting out to meet me in their tiny ciaft, like black specks on the -waters, and I realised that I was once more in contact with these faithful dwellers of the north, who had been my constant companions for so many years, through all the varying circumstances and fortunes of my Arctic work, and from whom I was again to select the pick and flower oi' the hunters of the whole tribe, extending from Cape York to Etah, and there are between two hundred and /twenty and two hundred and thirty of them now. Prior to 1892 they }ad never r oeen farther north than their nwn habitat. I went to these people years ago, and my first work was from their country as a base. From these Esquimaux as Cape York I learned everything which had happened in the tribe since I had been them last, two years before; who bad died, 4n what families children had bten born, where this family and that family were then living—that is, the distribution of the tribe ior that particular summer. I thus 'learned where I could find the other men I wanted.

THE DASH FOR THE POLE. At Cape York I was on the threshold of the actual work. I had on board the ship when I arrived there all the equipment and assistance which the civilised world could yield. Beginning there, I was to take on the tools, the material, the personnel that the Arctic regions themselves were to furnish for their own conquest. Cape York, or Melville Bay, is the dividing line between the civilised world on the one side and the Arctic world on the other—the Arctic world with its equipment of Esquimaux, dogs, walrus, seal, fur clothing, and abo. riginal experience. I felt, «s we steamed northward from Oape York on the first day of August, 1908, that I was at last face to race with my own destiny, which was now to have the final word with me; I felt that all my years of work and all my former expeditions were merely preparations for this last and supreme effort. It has been said that well-directed labor toward a given end is th-:> best kind of prayer for its attainment. B~.it no man can live for years surrounded by the great white mystery of the Arctic without feeling that within and behind it is an Intelligence—watchful and responsive. And if, standing there with my back to the world and my fac-p toward that Mystery, I dared to ask if the r ooo n for which I had.labored so long, can any man wonder that T say so?